Researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the University of Dayton, Yale University, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have demonstrated the production of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) from food waste–derived volatile fatty acids (VFA) by targeting normal paraffins for a near-term path to market and branched isoparaffins to increase the renewable content in the long term. In an open-access paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they report that combining these distinct paraffin structures synergistically improved VFA-SAF flash point and viscosity to increase the renewable blend limit to 70%. Life cycle analysis showed up to 165% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions relative to fossil jet if the food waste is diverted from landfills to produce VFA-SAF. Wet waste is a low-cost, prevalent feedstock with the energy potential to displace over 20% of US jet fuel consumption; however, its complexity and high moisture typically relegates […]