It now seems that UK airline Virgin Atlantic has hailed the development of a new ‘revolutionary’ low-carbon aviation fuel. Sir Richard Branson, who owns Virgin Atlantic, said that this new fuel is produced from industrial waste gases. This could mean huge things for the aviation industry as a whole.

The plan is for this new fuel to help lower the carbon footprint put off by jet fuels. In fact, experts say that this new fuel could actually half the carbon footprint left behind. Apparently, this new fuel is produced from waste gases that would otherwise have been released into the atmosphere as CO2. This is the first time that waste gases could be used to make fuel.

So the question is: How are these waste gases turned into fuel? Apparently, the process uses a technology developed by Swedish Biofuels. Pretty much, they capture, ferment, and chemically convert the waste gases. Currently, they are capturing the waste gases from steel production and turning it into fuel. Since they are using gas that is typically just waste, there is no issue with growing feed stock to support this new fuel.

Right now, the process is being trialled in New Zealand by LanzaTech, which is a partner of Virgin Atlantic. The company is commissioning a large demonstration facility in Shanghai, China. There are a few plans underway to develop a commercial facility in China by 2014. Then, this idea would roll out to the UK and the rest of the world.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 14th, 2011 at 8:46 am and is filed under Travel News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.