USU Researchers Develop System to Convert Renewable Waste Byproducts Into Fuel

In the U.S., millions of people use airline travel on an average day, and yearly billions of pounds of cargo are flown into and out of airports. According the EPA, the fuel consumption to do all of this in 2021 was 14.5 billion gallons of jet fuel — and in addition there was a need for 200 million gallons of aviation gasoline for other types of flights.

Despite ongoing electrification efforts in this sector, there’s clearly an need for aviation fuels in our society. However, beginning in 2021, the FAA outlined a desire to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

To help in both regards, Utah State University Biological Engineering Endowed Professor Foster Agblevor has researched a way to have a source of aviation fuels, but in a sustainable way. Agblevor and his students have engineered a process to convert biomasses like wood and grasses into biojet and sustainable aviation fuels.

The system they’ve developed currently is designed to take in renewable waste byproducts from the forestry and agricultural industries to do so — which can also help to keep costs of the fuel production down.

He said that the fuels produced through his system are fundamentally no different than typical petroleum-based products. So through scaling this process up, the production of these fuels could ultimately aid in decarbonizing the aviation industry at large.