French energy company Engie announced that it has signed a new framework agreement with multinational shipping and logistics company CMA CGM to develop a biomethane production facility in France to supply renewable fuel to support the decarbonization of CMA CGM’s fleet. Starting in 2029/2030, the facility is expected to convert livestock waste, household biowaste and agricultural residues into biomethane, which will be supplied to CMA CGM’s fleet through the European gas grid under a certified mass-balance system. Under the agreement, Engie will lead the project’s development, including technical design and permitting. The company will also as oversee construction and operation of the facility, subject to a final investment decision (FID). Engie said that the project supports its strategy to expand biomethane production capacity in Europe, with the company targeting 10 TWh of annual capacity by 2035, up from 1.2 TWh currently. Catherine MacGregor, Chief Executive Officer of Engie, said: “With the construction of this new facility, we are pursuing our ambition to expand biomethane production capacity in support of the energy transition. This partnership with CMA CGM demonstrates how industrial and energy players can work together to develop concrete solutions to decarbonize hard-to-electrify sectors, while strengthening energy sovereignty and the...

While fuel shortages due to the Iran war made some countries double down on electrification, they also highlighted one industry that could be quite literally grounded without fossil fuels: aviation. Flying relies on fossil-based jet fuels and is extremely hard to decarbonize. Researchers in China now report a process that could help bring down flying’s carbon emissions while also tackling the plastic waste crisis. The two-step process converts plastic waste into high-quality jet fuel more efficiently and at much less cost than other methods researchers have reported in the past to convert plastic waste to fuels. The team’s preliminary analysis, reported in published in Nature Energy, shows that the plastic-based fuel would cut carbon dioxide emissions by 73% compared with petroleum-based jet fuel. The plastic that the researchers break down is polystyrene. This lightweight polymer, often commonly called Styrofoam, is used to make packaging and insulation. It is notoriously expensive and challenging to recycle. Besides usually being contaminated, it is composed mostly of air, which makes sorting and transportation difficult. Nearly all waste polystyrene goes to landfill today. The team from Nanjing Forestry University and Tsinghua University designed a new catalyst that breaks down polystyrene at high temperatures in the...