Aviation fuel: Trash landings

Subsidy adjustments revive BA's interest in producing jet fuel from waste

What a difference a day makes. The UK's Department for Transport, on 19 September, published changes to the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation directive. The amendments extended financial incentives beyond ground transport to include aircraft for the first time. This was enough to prompt British Airways (BA) to take another look at the idea, first mooted a few years ago, of converting hundreds of thousands of tonnes of household waste into sustainable jet fuel. With the subsidy changes recently announced, the economic feasibility of the scheme looks more optimistic. BA says it's partnering with Velocys, a renewable fuels company, to design a series of waste plants to create fuel. A final i