PNNL and LanzaTech Team to Make New Jet Fuel

Virgin Atlantic to fly first commercial flight on recycled waste gas.

Carbon-rich pollution converted to a jet fuel will power a commercial flight for the first time today.  The Virgin Atlantic Airlines' flight from Orlando to London using a Boeing 747 will usher in a new era for low-carbon aviation that has been years in the making.  Through a combination of chemistry, biotechnology, engineering, and catalysis, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and its industrial partner LanzaTech have shown the world that carbon can be recycled and used for commercial flight.

LanzaTech, a Chicago-based company, developed a unique carbon recycling technology that operates similar to traditional fermentation but instead of using sugars and yeast to make alcohol, waste carbon-rich gases, such as those found at industrial manufacturing sites, are converted by bacteria to fuels and chemicals, such as ethanol.  The ethanol can be used for a range of low carbon products, including alcohol-to-jet synthetic paraffinic kerosene (ATJ-SPK) which is now eligible to be used in commercial flights at up to 50 percent blends with conventional jet fuel.

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