Aircraft fuel from Fat Sources

Engineers at the North California State University have developed a process that can convert any fat source into aircraft fuel. This is a major boost in our search for alternate, non-polluting fuel sources.

This technology is called Centia. Centia can convert fatty materials into fuel of any kind and is patented by Diversified Energy Corp, a privately held Arizona company.

This process was developed by Dr. William Roberts of NC State along with Dr. Henry Lamb, and Dr. Larry Stikeleather also of NC State, and Tim Turner of Turner Engineering in Carrboro, N.C.

This process helps in better and cleaner combustion of the fuel and hence greater efficiency. No exhaust materials are released into the atmosphere. It utilizes even the components having lower energy content as compared to other processes which leave out such components.

The Centia process includes separation of fatty acids, decarboxylation, chain structure division and chemical tweaking of the chain to produce the desired fuel.

This fuel can be beneficial to the aviation sector in the sense that it provides a cheaper fuel source and apart from that, it is also non-polluting. Hence, they are an ideal alternative to reduce green house gas emissions.