---
title: "A Plane Powered by Recycled Waste Just Flew Across the Atlantic"
description: "A Virgin Atlantic flight powered in part by sustainable jet fuel completed a trek from Orlando to London on Thursday morning."
date: "2018-10-04"
modified: "2018-10-04"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/sustainable-jet-fuel-virgin-atlantic"
categories:
  - "Energy"
  - "Renewable Energy"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "Carbon Capture"
  - "carbon emissions"
  - "jet fuel"
  - "lanzatech"
  - "richard branson"
  - "sustainable jet fuel"
  - "the digest"
  - "virgin atlantic"
---

# A Plane Powered by Recycled Waste Just Flew Across the Atlantic

![A Virgin Atlantic flight powered in part by sustainable jet fuel completed a trek from Orlando to London on Thursday morning.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/virgin-atlantic-recycled-jet-fuel.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Virgin Atlantic\</em\>*

## Across the Pond

It's not every day that the founder of an airline greets one of its planes upon touchdown.

But Virgin Atlantic founder Richard Branson had a reason to be [on the tarmac](<https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/oct/03/first-commercial-flight-partly-fuelled-by-recycled-waste-lands-in-uk>) after his airline's Flight VS16 landed in London Thursday morning, fresh from a transatlantic journey from Orlando, Florida: It was the world's first commercial flight partially powered by recycled waste.

## Second Life

The fuel is the creation of California's LanzaTech, which captures and converts carbon emissions from steel mills, oil refineries, and other manufacturing sites into fuels and chemicals using a proprietary process powered by microbes.

“This fuel takes waste, carbon-rich gases from industrial factories and gives them a second life so that new fossil fuels don’t have to be taken out of the ground,” said Branson in [a press release](<http://www.lanzatech.com/virgin-atlantic-lanzatech-celebrate-revolutionary-sustainable-fuel-project-takes-flight/>).

## Fill 'er Up

LanzaTech's fuel comprised just five percent of the jet fuel powering the Virgin Atlantic plane, but that figure could increase to 50 percent — in April, an organization that sets aviation industry fuel standards [approved LanzaTech's](<http://www.lanzatech.com/jet-fuel-derived-ethanol-now-eligible-commercial-flights/>) sustainable jet fuel for use as a 50/50 blend with traditional fossil fuels. Now that they know it works, airlines can now try using it in larger quantities.

[LanzaTech believes](<http://www.lanzatech.com/virgin-atlantic-lanzatech-celebrate-revolutionary-sustainable-fuel-project-takes-flight/>) it could meet 20 percent of the commercial aviation industry's fuel demand using just the carbon it could capture from the world's eligible steel mills. And considering air travel accounts for [2 to 3 percent](<https://futurism.com/save-environment-stop-traveling>) of global CO2 emissions, this fuel could make a not-insignificant dent in the amount of carbon we pump into the atmosphere.

**READ MORE:** [First Commercial Flight Partly Fuelled by Recycled Waste Lands in UK](<https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/oct/03/first-commercial-flight-partly-fuelled-by-recycled-waste-lands-in-uk>) \[*The Guardian*\]

***More on airplane emissions: [Want to Save the Environment? Experts Say You Should Stop Traveling.](<https://futurism.com/save-environment-stop-traveling>)***

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)