Milestone for Aviation: Virgin's Historic Flight Marks a 70% Reduction in Carbon Emissions
Virgin Atlantic completed its inaugural flight using 100% sustainable fuel on the 28th, taking off from London Heathrow, crossing the Atlantic Ocean and landing successfully at New York's JFK International Airport. This is a big step towards zero-carbon flights, even if there is still a long way to go before the full use of sustainable fuels.
Sustainable aviation fuel SAF can be produced from a variety of sources including crops, household waste oil and cooking oil. Virgin's flight, which filled 50 tons of SAF, used two types of fuel, 88% of which came from waste oil and the rest from waste material from the US corn process. Virgin Atlantic says that fuel made from waste materials can reduce carbon emissions on flights by as much as 70%, but the relatively high cost is the biggest challenge to universal adoption in the future.
Sustainable fuels are the trend of the future, and energy companies are actively transforming their business. Aircraft account for 2% to 3% of the world's carbon emissions, but the challenge of decarbonizing the aviation industry is much more daunting than that of automobiles, and it is a goal that airlines are actively pursuing.
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