LANZATECH BIOFUEL:BILLIONAIRE Richard Branson's UK-based airline Virgin Atlantic is planning to trial a revolutionary new aviation fuel that it claims is twice as green as standard jet fuel, kerosene.
Lanzatech, a New Zealand- based biofuel company, produces the fuel by capturing waste gases such as carbon monoxide from steel production mills, removing particulates, nitrogen and oxygen and then fermenting the resulting gases in a bioreactor with its proprietary microbes.
The company estimates that its process could be applied to about two-thirds of the world’s steel mills, as well as metals processing and chemical plants.
If successfully produced on a commercial scale, the fuel would give airlines a realistic alternative to unsustainable biofuels such as ethanol that are being produced on land that was originally used for growing crops or forestry or others with production processes that require large quantities of water.
Lanzatech is piloting the technology in New Zealand and aims to commission a demonstration plant in Shanghai later this year, ahead of commercial deployment in 2014.
“The steel industry alone could deliver over 15 billion gallons of jet fuel annually, so the potential is very exciting. This new technology is scalable, sustainable and can be produced at a cost comparable to conventional jet fuel,” says Branson.