The next generation of biofuels could be on the horizon to help people get to their destinations without flying on planes powered by dirty energy.
Another exciting factor? The biofuel could be available for as little as $3.15 per gallon of gasoline equivalent, as detailed by Anthropocene, possibly facilitating travel at a more affordable price point with significantly less harmful pollution.
This biofuel would be made possible by a refinery process first reported by researchers at the University of California, Riverside in 2013.
To transform non-food sources into fuel, scientists used an organic compound called tetrahydrofuran, which reacts with the three main elements of plant cell walls at "mild temperatures."
The method, known as CELF (co-solvent enhanced lignocellulosic fractionation), efficiently split plant matter into high-quality practical materials.
"The CELF technology was designed to be simple, low-cost, and robust," Charles Cai, a chemical and environmental engineering professor at UC Riverside, explained to Anthropocene.
The researchers' analysis, which was published in Energy & Environmental Science, is another promising sign for plane travel, which is responsible for around 2.5% of carbon pollution, according to Our World in Data.
While that percentage might not sound like a lot, those emissions have a stronger warming effect overall because of how the burning of dirty fuel interacts with the atmosphere. A long-term decrease in ozone, which protects us from cancer-causing radiation, is also one of the impacts.
Hydrogen-powered, hybrid-electric, and fully electric planes are among the solutions scientists have been working on to reduce harmful pollution associated with air travel.
As Anthropocene pointed out, though, biofuels could be a "near-term solution" as long as they aren't made from food crops, some of which have already become more expensive or rare after being negatively impacted by extreme weather events made more common by an overheating planet.
In March 2023, researchers at UC Riverside were awarded a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, and the funds will be used for a three-year initiative to build and test a CELF pilot unit, according to a press release from the university.
The project, which is patented and was one of 17 selected to ramp up the development of sustainable biofuels, is expected to process at least a half-ton of biomass every day and will feature a system that recovers and reuses the solvents used during operations.
"This is certainly a very exciting opportunity to demonstrate CELF technology's robustness in scaling up. We are grateful for the continued DOE support as we embark on this second-phase of process development with our industry partners," Cai said in a statement for UC Riverside.
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