Disrupt methane generation with fermenters that transform carbon energy from food waste and other organic “wet waste” into volatile fatty acids (AGV) we can get jet fuel.
Using a catalyst to add more carbon to VFA molecules, a new study suggests how to build long chains of energy-rich paraffin hydrocarbons that are essentially chemically identical to those in conventional jet fuel, except with a fraction of the carbon footprint.
New biorefining process
The new technology presented in a published study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the University of Dayton, Yale University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
According to the NREL researcher Derek Vardon, author of the study:
If our refining pipeline expands, it could take just a year or two for airlines like Southwest to obtain the fuel regulatory approvals they need to begin using sustainable wet-waste aviation fuel on commercial flights so that means net flights with Zero carbon emissions are on the horizon sooner than some might have thought.
This new biorefining process harnesses food and other waste to produce sustainable aviation fuel compatible with jet engines and capable of supporting zero carbon flights, meaning that greenhouse gas emissions created by the combustion of jet fuel are reduced to zero by emissions eliminated or diverted from the atmosphere when producing the fuel.
Additionally, eliminating food waste as a source of methane can be a very effective way to reduce landfill emissions.
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The news
New solution for sustainable aviation fuel with zero carbon emissions from waste
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.