Turning household rubbish into jet fuel

BP and Johnson Matthey license innovative waste-to-fuels technology to biofuels producer Fulcrum BioEnergy.

BP and Johnson Matthey (JM) have signed an agreement with Fulcrum BioEnergy to license their Fischer Tropsch (FT) technology to support Fulcrum’s drive to convert municipal solid waste into sustainable aviation fuel.

BP and JM have developed a simple-to-operate and cost-advantaged FT technology that can operate both at large and small scale to economically convert synthesis gas, generated from sources such as municipal solid waste and other renewable biomass, into long-chain hydrocarbons suitable for the production of diesel and jet fuels. Fulcrum will use the BP and JM technology in their new Sierra BioFuels Plant located in Storey County, Nevada.

The Sierra plant will be the first commercial-scale plant in the US to convert municipal solid waste feedstock, or household waste that would otherwise be landfilled, into a low-carbon, renewable transportation fuel. When the plant begins commercial operation, planned for the first quarter of 2020, Sierra is expected to convert approximately 175,000 tons of household waste into approximately 11 million gallons of fuel each year: equivalent to the fuel needed for more than 180 return flights between London and New York.