By Tyne Morgan
Ag Web
As airlines work to reduce their carbon footprint, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel are taking flight. Earlier this month, United Airlines successfully completed the first flight running on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), a 100% renewable fuel made from products such as cooking oil, vegetable oil and even soybean oil.
“This an important and historic moment for global aviation,” said Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, during the flight. “There's simply no battery technology, even theoretical technology, that has enough energy density that you could put enough batteries on the airplane to get an airplane this big with this many people flying this far," he said. "And so what works in a lot of other transportation industries won't work for aviation."
The sustainable aviation fuel used by United was made from sugar and corn instead of soybean oil, and analysts say the jet fuel industry could mean big business for farmers in the years ahead.