Company Aims to Make Jet Fuel from Coal

The New York Times Energy & Environment
December 15, 2009, 8:16 am
By MATTHEW L. WALD

Some of the world’s largest airlines — including American, US Airways, Delta and Lufthansa — have signed a memorandum of understanding to buy 500,000 barrels per month of jet fuel made from coal and petroleum coke, a refinery waste product.

The development will be announced this morning by Rentech, the Los Angeles, Calif.-based company that plans to make the fuel at a plant in Mississippi.

Despite the use of coal, the process will result in jet fuel with lower carbon emissions than the stuff used in airlines today, the company says. That is because a waste stream of carbon dioxide from making the fuel will be piped to Texas, where it will be used to help squeeze oil out of the ground.

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