While green rocket fuel isn’t a planet saver, however it’s one step humankind can take toward achieving a net-zero future.
According to John Cumbers, a former NASA synthetic biologist and CEO of SynBioBeta, a single Falcon 9 flight emits about 336 tons of carbon dioxide—the equivalent of a car traveling around the world 70 times!
There are several efforts afoot to produce rocket fuel in a more environmentally friendly way. As an example, energy startup Green Hydrogen International is developing a green hydrogen project in South Texas; researchers at the German Aerospace Center are working on a fuel that only produces nitrogen, oxygen, and water when heated; canadian company Hyox is developing technology for production of net-zero aviation fuel and rocket propellants that will use low-cost solar power and electrolysis to produce methane and kerosene, both of which can propel rockets into space.