Qantas and Solazyme Collaborating on Solajet Production

In brief: Solazyme, Inc. has begun a collaboration with aviation company Qantas to begin commercial production of Solajet, Solazyme's renewable aviation fuel.

The word

The pursuit will see the microbial-derived aviation fuel, Solajet, being made in Australia and tested for commercial aviation use by Qantas. Over the next year, the companies will be putting the fuel through testing and eventually in the air.

The costs and impact of commercial jet fuel, Solazyme believes, makes its product viable on the open market as an alternative. Australia currently uses about 1.6 billion gallons (US) of commercial aviation fuel.

And so ...

The process for Solajet is similar to the company's Soladiesel product, which uses algae to break down biomass into usable petroleum-like oils.

Photo credits: Solazyme