Instead of heading to the landfill, food scraps may someday power planes.
Engineers in Illinois have said food waste can be turned into a cleaner jet fuel that can work without mixing in fossil fuel.
What happened?
At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, researchers created a process that converts discarded food into sustainable aviation fuel, potentially addressing both landfill waste and aircraft pollution.
As Earth.com reported, the resulting fuel met aviation standards as a standalone option rather than only as a blend with conventional jet fuel.
Yuanhui Zhang, professor of agricultural and biological engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has been working on this innovative fuel. He said it starts with hydrothermal liquefaction, using heat and pressure to transform wet food waste into an oily material. That material is then refined with a catalyst into jet-ready fuel.
Unlike many lower-carbon aviation fuels that can be used only in partial blends, this one passed key viscosity and flash-point tests, the Illinois team said. In principle, that means it could run a jet engine at 100%.
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Why does it matter?
This approach targets two persistent climate challenges at once: food decomposing in landfills that emits the potent, heat-trapping gas methane, and an aviation industry that is among the toughest sectors to decarbonize.
Long-haul planes still need energy-dense liquid fuel, as today's batteries are still too heavy to make trips viable.
If this technology scales up, it could give cities a better use for scraps they already pay to haul away. Instead of becoming a landfill problem, that waste could become part of a useful fuel supply.
The byproduct from making the fuel was further processed, and it yielded more than 90% of useful acids, recovered over three-quarters of the remaining nutrients, and also generated the hydrogen needed for the fuel-refining process.
There may be financial benefits as well. Cleaner waste handling can ease landfill burdens, and a more competitive sustainable fuel market could help manage fuel costs.
Cost and climate performance may improve in the future, and the team estimated that cheaper, cleaner electricity could eventually lower the fuel's price to about $3.82 per gallon. Meanwhile, a life-cycle analysis suggested the process could be carbon-negative.
What are people saying?
Earth.com described the setup as a "circular bioeconomy" because outputs from one stage help support another.
Zhang emphasized that the work remains in its early stages, saying, "We are still doing this work on a very small scale."
Still, he noted that the lab can now make enough refined fuel for engine tests, with jet engine trials representing the next major milestone.
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