Airlines to benefit from farmer fuels

Flying the friendly skies remains – mostly – a popular past-time, but the airline industry is working hard to cut its carbon footprint. And while there’s growing interest in electric power for airplanes, that’s in the more distant future. For now, jet engines need to run on fuel but soon more of that fuel will come from alternative sources using crop feedstocks like corn or soybeans.

What could this market mean for farmers? And what are the challenges that make converting the airline industry to sustainable aviation fuels difficult? In this episode of Around Farm Progress, we turned to Patrick Gruber, CEO of Gevo, an energy company making a significant investment in sustainable aviation fuels. In addition, Gevo has already signed significant deals with major airlines to supply these fuels in the future.