The Airline Industry’s Biggest Climate Challenge: A Lack of Clean Fuel
Tallow, sugarcane and even carbon dioxide can be used to make sustainable aviation fuel. But there’s not nearly enough to meet airlines’ goals.
Passenger aircraft, operated by British Airways Plc, at Heathrow Airport. IAG SA, the airline’s parent company, has pledged to up its sustainable aviation fuel usage to 10% by 2030.
Photographer: Jason Alden/BloombergIn a glimmer of progress for the daunting task of reducing air travel’s climate impact, a newly built plant in rural Georgia is expected to begin pumping out the world’s first commercial quantities of a new type of cleaner jet fuel this month.
The $200 million plant from LanzaJet Inc. will be the first to turn ethanol into a fuel compatible with jet engines. The facility is one of many efforts around the globe attempting to crack one of the biggest problems facing greener air travel: finding and developing cleaner feedstocks that can generate enormous quantities of fuel without triggering ripple effects that end up worsening the climate and biodiversity crises.