Virgin Atlantic has completed a commercial flight from
Orlando to London using fuel partially made from waste carbon gas from a steel
mill.
Fuel producer LanzaTech recycled the waste gas to make ethanol,
which can be used in jet fuel. The process used to make the fuel in was developed
in collaboration with Pacific Northwest National Lab and the U.S. Department of
Energy. Boeing is also a partner in the project.
LanzaTech said its approach has huge scale-up potential. "If
the technology were rolled out worldwide to the world's eligible steel mills (65% of all),
this alone could produce enough fuel to meet around 20% of the current
commercial global aviation fuel demand."