EU project produces ‘world’s first ”solar” jet fuel
SOLAR-JET, a four-year research project funded by the EU, has reportedly created the ‘world’s first’ renewable ‘solar’ kerosene from water and carbon dioxide.
Despite being still at the experimental stage, researchers have demonstrated the entire production chain for renewable jet fuel, using concentrated light as a high-temperature energy source.
The process
In the first step, concentrated light - simulating sunlight - was used to convert carbon dioxide and water to synthesis gas (syngas) in a high-temperature solar reactor containing metal oxide based materials developed at ETH Zürich. The syngas (a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) was then converted into a glassful of kerosene by Shell, using the established ‘Fischer-Tropsch’ process.
Although producing syngas through concentrated solar radiation is still at an early stage of development, the processing of syngas to kerosene is already being deployed by companies, including Shell, on a global scale.
It is hoped that by combining the two approaches, any liquid hydrocarbon fuel could be produced from sunlight, carbon dioxide and water, thus providing ‘secure, sustainable and scalable’ supplies of aviation fuel as well as diesel and gasoline, or even plastics.
In the next phase of the project, the partners plan to optimise the solar reactor and assess whether the technology will work on a larger scale and at competitive cost.
European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, said: "This technology means we might one day produce cleaner and plentiful fuel for planes, cars and other forms of transport. This could greatly increase energy security and turn one of the main greenhouse gases responsible for global warming into a useful resource."
The SOLAR-JET project
The SOLAR-JET project was launched in June 2011 and is funded through €2.2 million (£1.8 million) of the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7).
The project involvesresearch organisationsfrom both academia and industry, including: ETH Zürich; Bauhaus Luftfahrt; Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR); Shell Global Solutions; and ARTTIC.
Read more about the SOLAR-JET project.