As we all know from first-hand experience and statistical weather tracking, it is getting hotter and hotter every year. CO2 emissions, a key contributor to global warming, is also heavily driven by the aviation industry. In fact, aviation has the highest carbon footprint per passenger compared to other transportation modes. Hence, scientists and policy-makers are looking to renewable fuel alternatives, or Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), to power the next generation of clean flying. The beauty of renewable fuels is that they can potentially be sourced from anywhere because one of the most common intermediates for biofuel production is ethanol, which can be produced from corn, wood, or even steel mill emissions.

However, the next step of turning ethanol into biofuel suitable for aviation use can be tricky. This is because of the complicated chemistry needed to transform a single small ethanol molecule into the complex mixture of large molecule chains that makes up jet fuel. Think of trying to bake a multi-layered wedding cake starting from just a single ingredient.

In 2019, Pacific Northwestern National Laboratory (PNNL) and LanzaTech received an FLC Excellency in Technology Transfer Award for converting ethanol to jet fuel in an eco-friendly and economic way. Based on a unique catalyst formulation – materials that accelerate chemical reactions – LanzaTech was able to develop a proprietary and highly efficient multi-step process to produce ethanol-based SAF. Now that six years have passed, where is this technology now?

In 2020, LanzaTech secured $25 million to spin-off a SAF-focused company, LanzaJet. Two years later, the construction of the LanzaJet Freedom Pines Fuels facility marked the world’s first ethanol-to-jet SAF production plant. The effect? The facility will roughly double the amount of U.S. SAF production and globally facilitate the aviation industry’s goal of net zero emissions by 2050. LanzaJet has also initiated global projects in the U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and India. One initiative, Project Speedbird, will produce 27 million gallons of SAF annually for British Airways, which will reduce carbon emissions by 230,000 tons per year — equivalent to 26,000 domestic flights.

LanzaTech CEO, Jennifer Holmgreen, recalled how SAF production was “something that people did not think was possible.” Some of the hurdles encountered were technical, like fine-tuning the production process to ensure their SAF was classified as a “drop-in fuel,” a substitute fuel that can feed directly into the pre-existing aviation infrastructure. Other challenges were regulatory, such as completing the stringent testing process from the American Society of Testing and Materials, needed to fully certify their SAF for use in commercial jets.

Nevertheless, the fruit of PNNL’s and LanzaTech’s initial partnership is showing. LanzaTech/LanzaJet have won several awards and recognitions including TIME100 Most Influential Companies, MIT Technology Review’s 15 Climate Tech Companies to Watch, and Rising Star Company of the Year at Platts Global Energy Awards from S&P Global.

The success of LanzaTech and the growing adoption of SAF will help pave the way for what scientists call a circular economy– a continuous cycling of resources that minimizes waste. While its impact may not be immediate, the long-term benefits are far-reaching: enabling us to sustainably source the materials we rely on every day while fostering a cleaner, safer world.