Landfill gas and captured CO2 turned into 2.5 barrels of jet fuel by new US tech

A climate technology company has successfully produced synthetic aviation fuel from landfill-derived renewable natural gas (RNG) and captured industrial carbon dioxide (CO2) with its Aurora technology platform. The fuel was produced on a fully integrated demonstration line equipped with the 2.5-barrel-per-day Aurora Tri-Converter and Aurora Upgrader units. These were linked to an existing Fischer-Tropsch reactor run by Research Triangle Park (RTI). Aether Fuels, which is based in the US and Singapore, said that the demonstration covered the whole production process. It reportedly transformed waste-derived gaseous feedstocks into fully upgraded synthetic liquid jet fuel. Independent testing firm AmSpec confirmed that samples produced during the demo met the applicable ASTM specifications for Fischer-Tropsch Synthesized Paraffinic Kerosene (FT-SPK). “This is exciting progress for Aether as we march forward towards commercial deployment,” Conor Madigan, Aether Fuels CEO and co-founder, said. Jet fuel passes key test The demo used mass-balanced renewable natural gas from landfill gas generated in Kentucky alongside captured industrial CO2. The company is believed to be the first in North America to produce ASTM-spec synthetic aviation fuel from mass-balanced RNG and captured industrial CO2 at this scale. As per Aether Fuels, the fuel complied with ASTM D7566 requirements applicable to FT-SPK. Under the ASTM D7566 standard, qualifying synthetic fuel can be blended with conventional kerosene at concentrations of up to 50 percent. Moreover, the blend requires no modifications to aircraft fuel tanks, pipelines, or airport fueling systems. Because the FT-SPK production route is already covered under ASTM D7566, the firm said its fuel does not require the establishment of a new ASTM pathway. “This demonstration proves Aether’s ability to scale up our integrated Aurora platform, take a feedstock through the complete end-to-end process, and produce on-spec synthetic aviation fuel,” Dhaval Shah, Aether Fuels CTO, said. “It is the culmination of over a year of hard work by Aether’s R&D team and is a tremendous milestone,” Shah continued, adding that the data collected during the demo is set to cut the technical risks associated with the firm’s next project. New fuel plant planned The achievement followed after an earlier Tri-Converter test with GTI Energy. The company now plans to develop Project Beacon, a commercial facility in Singapore with an annual production capacity of 2,000 metric tons. Set to produce around 50 barrels of fuel per day, the plant will have about 20 times the capacity of the latest demonstration equipment. “This is a significant achievement and puts us on the right track to successfully build and operate Project Beacon and the commercial projects that will follow,” Madigan said in a press release. Aether Fuels said larger projects are expected to produce ASTM D7566-compliant sustainable aviation fuel. This could reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by more than 70 percent compared with conventional jet fuel. “We started by systematically demonstrating each part of the Aurora platform at the pilot scale, then scaled our novel technology up more than 50X in standalone demo units, and in this most recent demonstration, brought these demo units together in an integrated line that produces ASTM spec jet fuel,” Madigan concluded.Get the latest in engineering, tech, space & science - delivered daily to your inbox.Based in Skopje, North Macedonia. Her work has appeared in Daily Mail, Mirror, Daily Star, Yahoo, NationalWorld, Newsweek, Press Gazette and others. She covers stories on batteries, wind energy, sustainable shipping and new discoveries. When she's not chasing the next big science story, she's traveling, exploring new cultures, or enjoying good food with even better wine.