Competitive Edge: Velocys

by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) ... Velocys is delivering the next generation of sustainable fuels to decarbonize aviation. We were founded from spinouts of Oxford University in the UK and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the USA, developing a proprietary technology which enables the production of sustainable transport fuels from a variety of waste materials, including household waste and woody biomass.

We have demonstrated our technology at scale and developed an end-to-end technology solution to produce fuels that significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and exhaust pollutants for aviation – the hardest transport mode to decarbonize. We are now developing two commercial projects – Altalto Immingham in the UK and Bayou Fuels in Mississippi in the US – and our technology has been licensed to a range of clients across the world, including in the US and Japan.

As the world heads towards Net Zero, and if we are to continue to get the benefits of modes of travel that require high energy density fuel, then demand for liquid sustainable fuels will only increase. The ‘drop in’ nature of the fuel that Velocys’ technology can produce means that ours is a “here and now” solution to one of the most consistently polluting sectors of the global economy, requiring no changes to engines or wider design.

There is significant global opportunity in this area. In the UK, for example, recent forecasts from industry coalition Sustainable Aviation show that 32% of the UK demand for kerosene could be met by domestically produced sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by 2050 – we want to be at the forefront of this movement internationally.

Velocys’ waste-to-jet-fuel process will significantly reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and exhaust pollutants for aviation, helping to cut aviation’s net emissions.

Our waste-to-jet-fuel process has been proven at scale and is made up of the following steps:

Velocys is also developing a first of its kind facility in the US, which will take waste woody biomass and transform it into carbon negative transportation fuels through the utilisation of Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS). The plant will take woody biomass residues and other low value biomass streams and turn it into sustainable fuel for aviation, along with heavy-duty road transport.

The proposed Altalto Immingham plant is to convert hundreds of thousands of tonnes per year of non-recyclable everyday household and commercial waste, otherwise destined for landfill or incineration, into cleaner burning SAF. The fuel produced will offer net greenhouse gas savings of around 70% for each tonne of conventional jet fuel it displaces. It will also improve air quality, with up to 90% reduction in particulate matter (soot) from aircraft engine exhausts and almost 100% reduction in sulphur oxides.

Whilst our Bayou Fuels facility will take waste from the Mississippi paper and lumber industries – woody biomass forest residue that would otherwise rot on the forest floor. We will then convert this waste into cleaner burning sustainable fuels for aviation or heavy duty road transport. With a standard configuration, the fuel will deliver a net CO2 saving of around 70% for each tonne of conventional fuel it displaces.

In addition, Velocys’ agreement with Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, LLC (OLCV) will take the environmental benefits accrued a step further through CCUS; whereby Bayou Fuels CO2 will be captured before it enters the atmosphere. This combination of CCUS-ready technology and OLCV’s expertise in storing CO2 will enable the Velocys’ facility to produce net negative carbon intensity fuels.

Our proposed facilities could be producing SAF in commercial scale by the middle of this decade. The ‘drop-in’ nature of the fuel means that the world’s first zero emission plane can be one that is already in the sky, using SAF produced with Velocys technology. READ MORE