Making aircraft fuel from sunlight and air

Scientists have built a plant that can produce Carbon-neutral liquid fuels from sunlight and air.

Carbon-neutral fuels are crucial for making aviation and maritime transport sustainable. The plant developed in Zurich can be used to produce synthetic liquid fuels that release as much CO₂ during their combustion as was previously extracted from the air for their production.

CO₂ and water are extracted directly from ambient air and split using solar energy. This process yields syngas, a mixture of Hydrogen and Carbon monoxide, which is then processed into kerosene, methanol, or other hydrocarbons.

A team of researchers have been operating the mini solar refinery over the last two years. This plant successfully demonstrates the technical feasibility of the entire thermochemical process for converting sunlight and ambient air into drop-in fuels. The system operates stably under real-world solar conditions and provides a unique platform for further research and development. The technology is now sufficiently mature for use in industrial applications.

Desert regions with high solar resources are particularly suitable as production sites. Unlike with biofuels, whose potential is limited due to the scarcity of agricultural land, this technology enables us to meet global demand for jet fuel by using less than one percent of the world's arid land and would not compete with the production of food or livestock feed. If the materials used to build the production facilities, such as glass and steel, are manufactured using renewable energy and Carbon-neutral methods, emissions can be further reduced to close to zero.