In New York, Interesting Engineering reported that a new process transforms food waste into sustainable aviation fuel that meets industry standards.
Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the US developed a thermochemical conversion process that doesn’t require the resultant fuel to be blended with fossil fuels, according to the report.
The research team used hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) to transform food waste directly into biocrude oil.
After converting food waste into biocrude oil, the researchers employed a two-stage process to create sustainable aviation fuel, the report added.
The researchers first removed simple impurities like moisture, ash, and salt. Following this, catalytic hydrotreating was to eliminate unwanted elements (nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur), leaving behind pure hydrocarbons.
This final step uses cobalt molybdenum as the most effective catalyst to refine the oil into pure hydrocarbons that meet jet fuel specifications.
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