Tata, along with Neath Port Talbot council and American bioengineering firm LanzaTech are working on the plan which involves using the gases from Tata’s Port Talbot plant for flying the planes fueled by waste gases from steelworks.
Waste gases are an unavoidable part of the industrial production of steel and it is thought it could generate 30 million gallons of biofuel for the aviation industry every year.
Tata is one of the main carbon emitters across the whole of Wales. Harnessing this waste and turning it into an opportunity to make some money from the waste and saving the environment at the same time.
LanzaTech’s gas fermentation process uses carbon-rich industrial gases from the manufacturing of steel, and turns them into ethanol. It can then be transformed into chemical products and fuel. It is like a traditional fermentation process where waste carbon pollution and microbes are used instead of sugar and yeast.
The company has also developed a technology that converts alcohols, such as ethanol, into jet fuel. This is increasingly important as the aviation sector needs to meet its self-imposed carbon reduction targets plus this fuel is better than its fossil-based counterparts.
Reference- BBC website, TATA steel UK PR