{"id":170168,"date":"2025-11-12T07:29:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T06:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=170168"},"modified":"2025-11-06T13:43:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T12:43:18","slug":"illinois-researchers-convert-food-waste-into-jet-fuel-boosting-circular-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/illinois-researchers-convert-food-waste-into-jet-fuel-boosting-circular-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois researchers convert food waste into jet fuel, boosting circular economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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Sabrina Summers from the University of Illinois is demonstrating the hydrothermal treatment of biocrude oil from food waste \u00a9 University of Illinois<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Airplane travel is more popular than ever, and our desire for fast transportation means jet fuel has become a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Now, researchers at the\u00a0University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign<\/a>\u00a0have discovered a novel way to address that problem – by converting food waste into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) that meets industry standards without relying on fossil fuel blends. Their process, described in a new\u00a0Nature Communications<\/em> study<\/a>, could help the aviation industry meet its ambitious goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process in a nutshell is this: The researchers convert food waste into biocrude oil through a thermochemical conversion process called hydrothermal liquefaction, or HTL. Next, they remove impurities from the biocrude oil, and finally, they refine it with the use of hydrogen and catalysts to turn it into aviation fuel.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This approach can be applied to a variety of feedstocks and types of oil, potentially leading to a new direction for obtaining fuels.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cHTL basically mimics the natural formation of crude oil in the Earth. It uses high heat and pressure to convert wet biomass into a biocrude oil. The goal of this work is to upgrade that biocrude oil into transportation fuels that can go directly into existing energy infrastructure,\u201d said lead author\u00a0Sabrina Summers<\/a><\/strong>, who recently graduated with a doctoral degree from the\u00a0Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering<\/a>\u00a0(ABE), part of the\u00a0College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The Grainger College of Engineering<\/a>\u00a0at U. of I.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In this project, the researchers used waste from a nearby food processing facility. Globally, over 30% of food is wasted annually at all levels of the supply chain – from\u00a0farm to transportation, processing, retail, food service, and households. Food\u00a0decomposition in landfills and wastewater treatment plants further contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, and recycling waste helps promote sustainability.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But HTL can process feedstock from a wide range of biowaste, including food, sewage sludge, algal bloom, swine manure, and agricultural residue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cTo meet the aviation industry\u2019s goals to decarbonate jet fuel, we need many different renewable sources, and agriculture is going to play a critical role in terms of providing the feedstocks,\u201d said ABE professor and corresponding author\u00a0Yuanhui Zhang<\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

To convert biocrude oil into jet fuel, the researchers first removed impurities such as moisture, ash, and salt. They then used a process called catalytic hydrotreating to eliminate unwanted elements like nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur – leaving behind only the hydrocarbons needed for fuel. After testing dozens of options, they identified cobalt molybdenum as the most effective commercially available catalyst to drive the necessary chemical reactions and refine the oil into sustainable aviation fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To optimize the hydrotreatment process, the researchers adjusted variables such as temperature, catalyst and hydrogen loads, and retention time to identify the best conditions for producing jet fuel. They then tested their sustainable aviation fuel against rigorous standards set by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the Federal Aviation Administration. Their SAF sample passed Tier Alpha and Beta prescreening tests and met all specifications for conventional jet fuel – without requiring any additives or blending with fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technology has the potential to be scaled up for commercial production, Zhang noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOur research helps solve the science and engineering problems, and then the industry can step in. The process can be applied to other types of oils for SAF. It can also replace other materials, such as petroleum-derived compounds for making plastics. This has huge potential for business opportunities and economic development,\u201d he<\/strong> said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Zhang has developed an index to measure circular bioeconomy<\/a>, and he said SAF provides a valuable contribution to circularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIn a linear economy, we just produce something, use it, and throw it away. In this project, we take the waste and recover the energy and materials to make a usable product. This fills a missing link in the circular paradigm,\u201d he <\/strong>concluded.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Journal Reference<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0paper<\/a>, \u201cFrom food waste to sustainable aviation fuel: cobalt molybdenum catalysis of pretreated hydrothermal liquefaction biocrude,\u201d is published in\u00a0Nature Communications<\/em>\u00a0[DOI:10.1038\/s41467-025-64645-y<\/a>]. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (EE0009269) and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Airplane travel is more popular than ever, and our desire for fast transportation means jet fuel has become a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Now, researchers at the\u00a0University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign\u00a0have discovered a novel way to address that problem – by converting food waste into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) that meets industry standards without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":170183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"The researchers convert food waste into biocrude oil through a thermochemical conversion process called hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) to get the biocrude oil, and they identified cobalt molybdenum as the most effective commercially available catalyst","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572,17143],"tags":[5714,5842,10416,13818,22763,10453,16792,15108],"supplier":[1144,26183,25331,11236],"class_list":["post-170168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","category-recycling","tag-biofuels","tag-biomass","tag-circulareconomy","tag-foodwaste","tag-pyrolysisoils","tag-recycling","tag-saf","tag-transportation","supplier-national-science-foundation-usa","supplier-the-grainger-college-of-engineering-illinois","supplier-university-of-illinois-at-urbana-champaign","supplier-u-s-department-of-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170168"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=170168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}