A plane powered by plants? Seems like science fiction, right? A recent investment from airline giant United may bring that closer to reality. Bioengineering company, Viridos, is experimenting with creating sustainable aviation fuel (or SAF) from algae.
United has committed $5 million to further research and development of this algae-based fuel. This investment aims to ensure SAFs power all United flights by 2050. The upside to using algae instead of other plant-based solutions is that the algae can be grown in the ocean. There is no need to invest in agriculture or farmable ground to compete with the food industry. And United isn’t the only company planning to switch to SAFs. The US government has issued a tax credit for the development of this fuel alternative, and there are plans to switch government planes to at least a 10% mixture of SAFs by 2028.
Viridos has successfully developed microalgae that outproduce natural algae to create the oils used in fuel. These microalgae are already producing more of this oil by orders of magnitude. Generally, SAFs are created with excess cooking oil or plant byproducts. Microalgae is one of the alternatives to grow the SAF industry to replace fossil fuels in planes and jetliners. The process is projected to have a 70% smaller carbon footprint than current biofuel manufacturing processes.
So, yes. Sometime soon, you may be on a flight powered by plants!