Airline develops world’s first jet fuel made with waste industrial gases from steel mills
Commercial airliners could soon be criss-crossing the skies powered by jet fuel made from waste gases from steel mills, thanks to a scientific breakthrough by low-carbon fuel specialists LanzaTech and airline Virgin Atlantic.
US-based LanzaTech said yesterday it has, for the first time, produced 1,500 gallons of jet fuel from ‘Lanzanol', its low-carbon ethanol. The fuel is made using waste industrial gases from steel mills, via a fermentation process, LanzaTech said.
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The breakthrough is the result of a five-year partnership between LanzaTech and Virgin Atlantic to make a commercially viable low-carbon jet fuel. Initial tests suggest the new fuel could result in carbon savings of up to 65 per cent compared with conventional jet fuel, Virgin Atlantic said.
"This is a real game changer for aviation and could significantly reduce the industry's reliance on oil within our lifetime," Virgin Atlantic founder Richard Branson said in a statement. "Virgin Atlantic was the first commercial airline to test a bio-fuel flight and continues to be a leader in sustainable aviation.
"Our understanding of low carbon fuels has developed rapidly over the last decade, and we are closer than ever before to bringing a sustainable product to the market for commercial use by Virgin Atlantic and other global airlines," he added.
Steel production produces waste carbon monoxide gas, which is often burnt off into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. To make Lanzanol, the carbon is instead captured from the waste gas via fermentation to alcohol, which is then recovered to produce ethanol feedstock. Each gallon of ethanol produced delivers half a gallon of aviation fuel, and LanzaTech estimates that the process could be used to capture around a third of the carbon emitted by steel facilities.
The fuel will now be tested on commercial engines, in partnership with Boeing, in order for it to be approved for a first use in commercial aircraft. Assuming it passes testing requirements, the new fuel could be used in test flights as early as next year, Virgin said, paving the way for a commercial rollout.
Dr Jennifer Holmgren, chief executive of LanaTech, said the breakthrough presents an opportunity for waste gases from industrial processes to be put to use. "We can now truly imagine a world where a steel mill can not only produce the steel for the components of the plane but also recycle its gases to produce the fuel that powers the aircraft," she said in a statement.
Should the fuel go into commercial production, Virgin Atlantic said it hopes to site a production facility in the UK, which would capture waste gases from UK steel mills.
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