Could This Be The Next Big Thing in Travel? Some Experts Think So

Could air travel one day be 0 emissions?

Transcript

00:00While jets are critical for the travel of people and goods around the world,

00:06they're not exactly eco-friendly. In fact, the BBC reported that an economy class

00:10return flight from London to New York creates 0.73 tons of CO2 per passenger

00:16and accounts for 12% of all CO2 emissions. But now scientists have

00:20developed an iron-based catalyst which they believe could someday allow us to

00:24use CO2 pulled straight out of the sky to power our planes. To make the CO2

00:28based fuel, experts combined the new iron catalyst, hydrogen gas, and carbon

00:32dioxide in a reaction chamber and pressure heated them. And in a single

00:35step, they were able to separate the carbon from the carbon dioxide molecules

00:39which then attached to the hydrogen, turning simple CO2 into jet fuel. It's

00:43not the first catalyst to convert CO2 into usable fuel, but it is the first to

00:48use something inexpensive like iron to do so.