Wizz Air, a budget airline based in Hungary with routes throughout Europe, has placed an order for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) made from human waste.
The SAF is developed by a UK-based startup, Firefly, which has come up with a way to turn treated sewage into fuel. Wizz Air recently placed an order for up to 525,000 metric tons of SAF for over the next 15 years from Firefly as a way of investing in the idea.
“Alongside fleet renewal and operational efficiency, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plays a crucial role in reducing carbon emissions from aviation,” says Yvonne Moynihan, corporate and ESG officer at Wizz Air. The airline estimates that the new sustainable fuel could reduce its CO2 emissions by 100,000 tonnes per year.
According to the International Energy Agency, the aviation industry is responsible for about 2 percent of global carbon emissions, but advancements such as SAF can reduce the impact of air travel.
Firefly says that there is a large source of biosolids from treated sewage that otherwise has little value and could be less expensive to turn into SAFs compared to other materials. Importantly, the sewage sludge can also be blended with up to 50 percent conventional fuel made from kerosene without needing to redesign or modify aircraft engines, reports EcoWatch.
Firefly’s fuel is still undergoing regulatory testing in England, but has secured agreement from a major water utility company for it to supply the biosolids for Firefly to turn into SAF. Firefly said it expects to start supplying the SAF by 2028 or 2029.
This will not, however, be the first transport initiative to run on human waste. In Spain, Barcelona's TMB bus fleet will be the first to run on biomethane obtained from sewage sludge and will reduce its carbon footprint by more than 85 percent thanks to the use of a high quality fuel of renewable origin, neutral in emissions.