Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are exclusively secreting their new green fuel
Recently, a research team has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS )
published new results, and proposed a method of converting kitchen waste into aviation fuel paraffin, which not only realizes the transformation of waste into treasure, but also hopes to greatly reduce the carbon emissions generated by flight-their secret paraffin fuel Compared with ordinary fossil energy, the emission reduction is 165% higher than that of the latter.
(The emission reduction during the fuel combustion process and the emission reduction caused by the reuse of kitchen waste are counted together)
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catalyzes the fatty acids in the garbage into paraffin
The global aviation industry is facing the contradiction between the increasing flight demand and the environmental responsibility of substantially reducing carbon emissions. Take the United States as an example. American airlines currently consume about 21 billion gallons of jet fuel each year. This number is expected to double by the middle of the 21st century; at the same time, they promised to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50%. .
The current method of preparing green fuel is similar to the method of producing biodiesel for cars and heavy trucks: Generally speaking, virgin vegetable oils and other fats and oils are the most important ingredients. .
However, from a cost point of view, 's current process of converting these waste materials into jet fuel is not economical.At least compared to the process of converting to diesel, it has more links and more complexity, and consumes more costs.
On the other hand, we currently deal with many wet garbage, including kitchen waste, mainly by landfill, and its ultimate destination is methane (another greenhouse gas).
Food waste is a global problem , and one of the main causes of global warming
The research team of this new study has a unique approach, converts kitchen waste, animal manure and wastewater into volatilization _Span11span (VFA) instead of methane, and then VFA is catalytically transformed into two different forms of paraffin wax. After
, they will combine these two paraffins and mix them with conventional jet fuel to finally get a green energy package that meets US quality standards. (The quality standards set by the United States for aircraft fuel are extremely strict.)
One of the lead authors of the new study, Derek Vardon, a senior research engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), said: "This work proves that we can extract volatile fatty acids from waste that has a high water content and would go to landfills, and then convert it into aviation fuel in a very elegant and simple way-it can be widely used. Application, we will continue to explore and improve it."
paraffin fuel also has the advantage of reducing the greenhouse effect of aircraft clouds
Another attractive advantage of paraffin fuel is that it generates more soot than current standards require It's about 34% lower. This is very important because soot plays a key role in the formation of airplane contrails (also called airplane clouds), and contrails can enhance the warming effect of carbon dioxide produced by the engine.
In Walden’s words, the greatest potential of ’s technology is to eliminate methane emissions caused by wet garbage.And significantly reduce the carbon footprint of jet fuel .
In the next two decades, carbon emissions from jet aircraft will increase rapidly
The research team also stated that they are planning to expand the production scale of new fuels and plan to cooperate with Southwest Airlines in 2023. Cooperative test flight.
Of course, many environmental protection groups have also questioned attempts to develop sustainable aviation fuel. They believe that the key to alleviating the climate problem should be to use less aircraft.
Walden also responded to this point: “Sustainable aviation fuel is not a panacea for environmental issues. We need to take a package of measures to really start to reduce the carbon footprint of the aviation industry, and reducing flying is indeed something everyone can do. The most important and effective change."
Source:
Climate change: Jet fuel from waste'dramatically lowers' emissions
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