Virgin Atlantic completes world's first biofuel trans Atlantic flight

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By Matthew Griffin Earth and Energy 7th October 2018

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

The global airline industry is one of the world’s heaviest polluters, and new clean sources of fuel are vital in helping the industry become more sustainable.

First Alaskan Airlines flew an aircraft using nothing more than wood pellets, but now Virgin Atlantic has gone one, or possibly two better when they celebrated the landing of their trans-atlantic Boeing 747-400 G-VROM, nicknamed Barbarella, at Gatwick airport in the UK. Although it is not uncommon to see the airline’s planes arrive at the airport, this particular journey gave much cause for celebration.

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In fact, as the firm took to Twitter to announce, the trip made aviation history. The flight from Orlando, Florida marked the first time ever a commercial craft was flown using biotech startup LanzaTech’s much discussed sustainable fuel.

The aviation firm referred to the event as a “landmark step towards making commercially viable sustainable aviation fuel a reality.” And the ceremony saw none other than Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson, whose green ambitions I was I discussed in the London Metro newspaper earlier this year, marshall the aircraft into its stand.

“Long haul travel is more important than ever for connecting people around the world. And it’s our responsibility to ensure we’re doing that in the most sustainable way possible,” said Branson. “Working with LanzaTech will enable us to drastically reduce our carbon emissions and at the same time, help support UK industry. That’s why we’re so excited to showcase this fuel on its first commercial flight as we plan for the world’s first full scale jet fuel plant using this amazing new technology.”

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Just last July, the UK Government granted LanzaTech a £410K grant to determine the feasibility of building a 40 to 50 million gallon jet fuel plant in Britain.

“This waste to jet fuel project has the potential to help transform the aviation industry by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving the air quality around our country’s airports,” said, at the time, Chris Grayling, UK Transport Secretary.

LanzaTech produces its sustainable biofuels by recycling waste industrial gases such as those produced from heavy industrial processes. The company’s process sees these carbon rich gases turned first to ethanol and then to a range of low carbon products, including jet fuel.

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“Today, with our carbon smart partner, Virgin Atlantic, we have shown that recycling waste carbon emissions into jet fuel is not impossible, that waste carbon needs to be thought as an opportunity not a liability, that carbon can be reused over and over again,” said Jennifer Holmgren, CEO at LanzaTech.

Virgin Atlantic further called on the UK government to commit to making this eco-friendly fuel a commercial reality in the UK by supporting LanzaTech in establishing and running three UK plants by 2025. This would allow the startup to produce up to 125 million gallons of sustainable fuel per year resulting in the saving of nearly 1 million tonnes of life-cycle carbon.

Source: Virgin Atlantic

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.