Every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted. The waste occurs all through the supply chain, from the farm itself, all the way to the household. It represents enough calories to potentially feed every undernourished person on the planet, and there is an environmental cost to this. About 6% of all human greenhouse gas emissions resulting from food loss and waste.

Target 12.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals calls for halving per capita global food waste at retail and consumer levels by 2030 and The US Department of Energy has been looking at converting food waste biomass into fuels for over five years to meet the urgent need for sustainable aviation fuel. The aviation industry contributes about 2.8% of greenhouse gas emissions.

Now for the first time researchers working at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory claim to have used food waste to produce a Net Zero jet fuel.

Guests

Derek Vardon, Senior Research Engineer, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Resources

For the recent paper detailing the research at NREL, click here