Decarbonisation Technology August 2025 Issue

have demonstrated a level of sustainability leadership and vision that would have seemed entirely impossible just a decade ago. The symbol of an airline, a notoriously profit-thin business, vertically integrating into its fuel supply chain represents a fundamental shift in the way the industry needs to operate, as it navigates its way through an industry-wide energy transition in real time. LanzaJet, BA, and Project Speedbird Further to their financial investment in the company, BA has been instrumental in advancing LanzaJet’s mission to scale its ATJ SAF, with the collaboration now setting its sights on delivering into the UK market. In July 2021, BA, LanzaJet, and Nova Pangaea Technologies (NPT), an ethanol company, were shortlisted in the UK’s Green Fuels, Green Skies competition. This award-winning submission would form the basis of what is now formally known as Project Speedbird, LanzaJet’s second planned commercial-scale facility to be delivered in the UK. This award funded the initial feasibility studies of the project, which included the exploration of NPT’s process of converting woody biomass waste into ethanol before being converted into SAF using LanzaJet’s ATJ process. In November 2022, BA and LanzaJet signed a formal agreement to pursue Project Speedbird, building on the foundations, designs, and lessons learnt from the Freedom Pines facility in the US. The goal was to build the UK’s first commercial-scale SAF facility, which would look to produce 113 million litres (30 million gallons) of SAF and RD per year from second- generation ethanol, procured from a range of local sources, including Nova Pangaea Technologies. This meant Project Speedbird would have three times the capacity of its predecessor, Freedom Pines Fuels. In November 2023, Project Speedbird was awarded £9 million ($11.2 million) from the UK Department for Transport’s Advanced Fuels Fund, which enabled the further advancement of the project towards the front- end engineering and design (FEED) phase, with support from BA in the form of an ‘offtake’ agreement for the SAF produced at the facility. Most recently, in January 2025, LanzaJet

selected Wilton International on Teesside in the northeast of the UK for Project Speedbird. Situated on land owned by leading industrial player Sembcorp, the site was selected due to the region’s increasing presence as an emerging green industrial cluster. The region’s mix of renewable energy, green hydrogen development, established infrastructure, and access to Teesside’s Freeport, along with strong regional government support, made it a strategic and compelling location. The facility, which is expected to start production in 2028, is set to create more than 250 construction jobs and more than 50 long- term skilled jobs, playing its role in driving regional economic growth and diversification in the north of the UK. Moreover, the SAF produced at the site will ultimately help to reduce around 230,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year, which is the equivalent to ~26,000 regional BA flights. Vision for the future: scaling SAF production LanzaJet is set to play a pivotal role in the global aviation industry’s net-zero transition. The company has announced its intent to produce more than 1.1 billion litres annually “ The SAF produced at the site will ultimately help to reduce around 230,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year, which is the equivalent to ~26,000 regional BA flights ” (300 million gallons), with an ambitious target of reaching 3.8 billion litres (1 billion gallons) by 2030. This scale-up will play an essential role in helping the sector meet both its near- and mid-term emissions targets, while offering a clear next-in-line option to follow the initial success of the HEFA pathway. The hope is that LanzaJet’s achievements can create a positive ripple effect throughout the industry, especially given the reliance on FOAK technology to fufill aviation’s net-zero goal by 2050.

Daniel Bloch daniel.bloch@lanzajet.com