With pressure mounting on the airline industry to reduce their carbon emissions, commercial airlines like United are turning to more environmentally-friendly alternatives to fuel their planes. This past Friday, United became the first airline in the U.S to begin full commercial deployment of renewable biofuel for its jets at the LAX airport. The airline has replaced its usual jet fuel for its flights headed to San Francisco with a 70% to 30% mix of petroleum-based fuel and a special biofuel made from trash. To make this happen, United is working with AltAir Fuels and Fulcrum Bioenergy, two companies that specialize in turning trash—literal trash—into jet fuel. AltAir’s process is based around converting inedible animal fat and grease into jet fuel, while Fulcrum converts “municipal solid waste” into fuel. United plans to run two more weeks of flights on this new fuel blend before using it to fuel all their flights at LAX, and don’t be surprised to see other airlines adopt similar fuel initiatives in the near-future as companies Fulcrum and AltAir hold the possibility of producing fuel at considerably lower prices than airlines currently source it, despite the drop in oil prices.
United Airlines begins flying powered by garbage
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