Climate change: Jet fuel from waste 'dramatically lowers' emissionshttps://t.co/1eJOdVIHPr

— EARTHDAY.ORG (@EarthDayNetwork) March 18, 2021

Good news! A new approach to making jet fuel from food waste could dramatically reduce the carbon emissions typically produced by jet liners. Usually food waste is converted into methane gas, but researchers in the US have discovered a way to convert this waste into a paraffin that can work in jet engines. The study estimates that the new process could cut carbon emissions by 165% compared to current processes.

The need for innovation comes as the demand for air travel has only increased over the last few decades, and the pressure of environmental concerns of the industry mount. Airlines in the US have committed to cutting C02 emissions by 50%, in order to do that we will need new approaches. This approach is more environmentally friendly in two ways: first it reduces the C02 output used by traditional fuels, second it reduces the methane gas that the food waste would typically produce if it was left to rot in a landfill.

The push for more sustainable air travel is a trend that the world’s largest corporations are even getting involved in, as Microsoft has committed to using jet fuel from waste oil in some of it’s flights.

Microsoft, the maker of video-conferencing platform Teams, thinks its business travel will recover — and it wants it to be greener, so it's buying jet fuel made from waste oil for some Alaska Airlines flights https://t.co/a56v4ungaa $MSFT $ALK

— Leslie Josephs (@lesliejosephs) October 22, 2020

For now, the technology needs to be scaled, and the researchers have teamed with Southwest Airlines to test the fuel on flights in 2023.

Source: BBC