Story perspectives

Illinois Researchers Transform Food Waste into Aviation Fuel

10/30/2025

Summary

Story summary

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers developed a method to convert food waste into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) using hydrothermal liquefaction.
The process converts wet biomass to biocrude via hydrothermal liquefaction and refines it with catalytic hydrotreating to remove nitrogen and sulfur.
The study is published in Nature Communications and was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.
The SAF meets industry standards without blending.

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Story summary

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers developed a method to convert food waste into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) using hydrothermal liquefaction.
The process converts wet biomass to biocrude via hydrothermal liquefaction and refines it with catalytic hydrotreating to remove nitrogen and sulfur.
The study is published in Nature Communications and was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.
The SAF meets industry standards without blending.