In pursuit of its ambitious goal to have net zero greenhouse emissions by 2030, The Dallas Fort-worth international airport has come up with an innovative yet functional solution to the unsustainable energy consumption issue in the airline industry.
After years of research, the airport has finally come up with a way to make flying more sustainable and eco-friendlier for everyone in the world. And the solution is instantly being put into action there.
The airport is cleverly taking used cooking oil from the restaurants at the airport (and other nearby eateries) and repurposing it to serve as jet fuel- providing these restaurants an eco-friendly way to dispose of their waste and providing travelers a way to fly in an environmentally friendly way.
The Dallas airport is currently using leftover cooking oil from 200 different restaurants and turning it into sustainable aircraft fuel, claiming that it is significantly dropping the environmental impact of 150 000 flights a day worldwide.
This project isn’t just a working theory right now- it is actually being put to practice with multiple successful airbus test flights that have already taken place through the airport.
Used Cooking oil and waste fat are being used as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and the repurposing processes are outsourced to the BP oil company. This ensures that the oil is cleaned and chemically altered to have the high energy-to-weight ratio that jet fuels possess.
This end product SAF can’t run aircraft by itself, so it is blended carefully with standard jet fuel to gain some of its properties. The final product works just as well as standard aircraft fuel and reduces waste emissions by 80% (even after accounting for emissions released during this fuel’s production.
With the TSA (Transportation Security Authority) expecting the number of air travelers to skyrocket in the coming years, this innovation by Dallas Fort-worth International Airport is a step in the long path to sustainability- an example that other airports should haste to follow.
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