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Commercial airlines alone contribute around 3 percent of total global carbon emissions. But the industry is actively looking for green solutions in the form of sustainable (可持续发展的) airline fuel, and in one case, that fuel may have had a previous life as your household food waste. In a study released this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers detail a method of transforming food waste into sustainable airline fuel.

Biomass (生物质), such as animal and food waste, can be transformed into biofuels, which are renewable liquid fuels made from organic matter. Derek Vardon, a senior research engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), says that their fuel worked as a mixture of 90 percent conventional petrol airline fuel and 10 percent alternative airline fuel required by the industry currently. They also show they could push it to a 70/30 mixture with more time and testing available.

Major companies are eager to participate in sustainable airline fuel because some sustainable solutions, such as battery-operated commercial planes, just aren’t possible yet with current battery technology. A battery-powered plane would be too heavy to fly long distances, so fuel that works in the same way as the fuel we have is a simpler way to trade out emission-heavy fossil fuels.

Vardon says that because the wet waste used in the process would normally go to a landfill (垃圾填埋场) and break down to release greenhouse gases, the process of making and using sustainable airline fuel could actually have a negative carbon footprint when scaled up.

Commercial airlines are also on board to find an affordable and sustainable solution to the carbon-intensive process of air travel. Airlines are looking to hit aggressive sustainability goals by 2050, including decreasing net carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent.