‘World’s first’ pilot facility converting waste plastic to Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) opens in Kent.
The pilot facility, which is operated by Clean Planet Technologies, is dedicated to converting hard-to-recycle waste plastics into SAF.
Known as the Sustainability Innovation Centre, the facility is set up to research and develop new technologies that can deal with non-recyclable plastic waste, beginning with conversion into jet fuel.
Clean Planet Technologies says the pilot has financial support in place from the Department for Transport-funded UK SAF Clearing House.
Commenting on the facility, Dr Andrew Odjo, Chief Executive Officer at Clean Planet Technologies, said: “Our process first heats the waste plastic with a chemical reaction to turn it into a liquid, rather than burning it.”
“This is then treated with our patented process to remove impurities and create SAF that meets stringent commercial aviation specifications.”
As part of the process, waste plastics are pre-processed and shredded to a uniform size before being fed into one of the centre’s two pyrolysis units. Clean Planet Technologies says the largest unit is capable of processing up to one tonne of plastic per day.
The fundamentals of the process (pyrolysis, purification, distillation and hydroprocessing) are all technologies which are currently used independently at commercial scale.
Dr Katerina Garyfalou, Chief Operating Officer at Clean Planet Technologies, commented: “The Sustainability Innovation Centre is set up to demonstrate our patented waste-plastics-to-SAF process at pilot scale, supporting fuel testing, validation and progression.”
