Sugarcane waste that would otherwise be burned or discarded could become a source of sustainable jet fuel, thanks to a new single-step chemical process developed by researchers looking to simplify how biomass gets turned into usable energy.
The process targets bagasse, the dry fibrous material left over after sugarcane stalks are crushed for their juice. Bagasse is produced in enormous quantities at sugar mills around the world, and while some of it is burned for electricity generation, much of it remains an underused byproduct. Converting it into jet fuel has long been technically possible, but the multistep processes required have made it expensive and difficult to scale.
The new approach, reported by Technology Org, combines what were previously separate chemical reactions into a single reactor vessel, cutting down on equipment, energy input, and processing time. Researchers say the "one-pot" method breaks down the cellulose and hemicellulose in bagasse and converts the resulting molecules into hydrocarbons that meet the specifications for aviation fuel.
Sustainable aviation fuel has become one of the harder targets in the push to decarbonize transportation. Unlike cars or buses, long-haul aircraft cannot simply switch to batteries. The aviation sector has been under pressure to find drop-in fuels that work in existing engines without modification, and biomass-derived fuels are one of the leading candidates.
Sugarcane is particularly attractive as a feedstock because it is already grown at massive scale in countries like Brazil, India, and Thailand. Using the waste rather than the crop itself avoids the land-use conflicts that have dogged earlier generations of biofuels, which were sometimes criticized for diverting food crops to energy production.
The researchers say the one-pot design improves the economics of the conversion process by reducing the number of purification stages and minimizing the loss of carbon between steps. Each additional reaction stage in a multi-step process typically results in yield losses, so consolidating the chemistry into a single vessel can meaningfully improve overall efficiency.
The work is part of a broader effort to develop biofuel pathways that can be certified and adopted by commercial airlines. Aviation fuel standards are strict, and any new process must produce a product that is chemically consistent and meets international specifications before airlines or regulators will consider it.
