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Making aviation fuel from biomass
MIT researchers are converting the plant material lignin into hydrocarbon molecules that could help make jet fuel 100 percent sustainable. In 2021, nearly a quarter of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions came from the transportation sector, with aviation being a significant contributor. While the growing use of electric vehicles is helping to clean up ground transportation, today’s batteries can’t compete with fossil fuel-derived liquid hydrocarbons in terms of energy delivered per pound of… (news.mit.edu) More...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Sure hope this comes within my lifetime. I will bet however it will end up like those "we have cured male pattern baldness" reports that seem to come out every few months.
For sure and by using plants that will take away farming for food so guess what prices will go up again at the market. Bad deal to displace things needed in the supermarket its never brought up in these discussions.
Biomass is the fancy word for mulch.
Well, current fuel production is subject to decisions about production throttling by oil producing countries, or politics, or natural disasters around refineries. Market forces can always intervene in unpredictable and painful ways no matter what we do, so that's not a reason to give up. Grow fuel biomass in places that can't support food production, grow food in the Midwest, and be prepared for something completely unexpected regardless of where we get our fuel.
Plenty of jet fuel alternatives in R&D, and in testing. Let the engineers and scientists do their work. Good flights.
Always exciting hearing news like this: especially for young folks like me. However, I've been keeping up with the av business for years and unfortunately, it will take decades to scale up any type of "biofuel" for aircraft. Additionally, I would assume that things like the military and other 3rd world countries getting this would take even longer. Still a step in the right direction though. :)