"Solar" jet fuel created from water and carbon dioxide
For the first time ever, researchers from the EU-funded SOLAR-JET project have succeeded in creating “solar” jet fuel (kerosene) from practically nothing but water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide (CO2).
The new means of producing jet fuel could “revolutionize the future of aviation” — according to the researchers, anyway. The new process can also be (potentially) used to produce a number of other types of fuel — including diesel, gasoline, and/or pure hydrogen.
“Increasing environmental and supply security issues are leading the aviation sector to seek alternative fuels which can be used interchangeably with today’s jet fuel, so-called drop-in solutions,” explained Dr Andreas Sizmann, the project coordinator at Bauhaus Luftfahrt. “With this first-ever proof-of-concept for ‘solar’ kerosene, the SOLAR-JET project has made a major step towards truly sustainable fuels with virtually unlimited feedstocks in the future.”
The new process relies on the utilization of a redox cycle with metal-oxide-based materials at high temperatures, which uses concentrated sunlight to convert CO2 and water to a synthesis gas (syngas). This syngas is, essentially, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide — this is then converted into kerosene via already available commercial Fischer-Tropsch technology.
“The solar reactor technology features enhanced radiative heat transfer and fast reaction kinetics, which are crucial for maximizing the solar-to-fuel energy conversion efficiency,” stated Professor Aldo Steinfeld, leading the fundamental research and development of the solar reactor at ETH Zürich.
While the solar-driven part of this process is new, as stated before, the processing of syngas to kerosene has been around (and commercialized) for some time now. By combining the two, though, a potential path to a “sustainable and scalable supply of renewable aviation fuel” brings a new possibility. Of course, economics will be the determining factor in whether such a path is viable or not.
“This is potentially a very interesting novel pathway to liquid hydrocarbon fuels using focussed solar power,” noted Professor Hans Geerlings at Shell. “Although the individual steps of the process have previously been demonstrated at various scales, no attempt had been made previously to integrate the end-to-end system. We look forward to working with the project partners to drive forward research and development in the next phase of the project on such an ambitious emerging technology.”
The SOLAR-JET (Solar chemical reactor demonstration and Optimization for Long-term Availability of Renewable JET fuel) project was launched in June 2011 and is being partially funded by the European Union under the 7th Framework Programme for a period of four years.
In related news, another approach to the issue of finding/developing replacements for the high-performance fuels currently derived from fossil fuels, biofuel production, recently took a big step forward thanks to researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Joint BioEnergy Institute. Researchers at these institutions succeeded in creating a new high-energy biofuel that could potentially replace or supplement expensive missile fuels currently in-use, such as JP10.
Also, even further along and more promising is some halophyte biofuel research being conducted by Masdar Institute, Boeing, Etihad Airways, and others. CleanTechnica‘s exclusive coverage of that biofuel research is linked above, and a follow-up is coming shortly.
The Solar Reactor that was used to turn water and CO2 into jet fuel
In a move that could help address our insatiable thirst for fuel while at the same time help cut CO2 emissions, scientists with the SOLAR-JET (Solar chemical reactor demonstration and Optimization for Long-term Availability of Renewable Jet fuel) project have recently shown that through a multi-step process, concentrated sunlight can be used to convert carbon dioxide into kerosene, which can then be used as jet fuel.
How it works
Although in an early stage of development, the process uses a solar-driven redox cycle with metal-oxide based materials at high temperatures to rearrange electrons, converting carbon dioxide and water into hydrogen and carbon monoxide, also known as synthesis gas (syngas).
“The solar reactor technology features enhanced radiative heat transfer and fast reaction kinetics, which are crucial for maximizing the solar-to-fuel energy conversion efficiency,” says Professor Aldo Steinfeld, leading the fundamental research and development of the solar reactor at ETH Zürich.
The process is then completed using the Fischer-Tropsch process, which is already approved to create fuel for commercial aviation and is used worldwide by companies such as Shell. Developed in 1925, the process takes the hydrogen and carbon monoxide from the syngas, and creates kerosene in liquid form, making it relatively simple to transport.
The impact
"This is potentially a very interesting novel pathway to liquid hydrocarbon fuels using focused solar power," says Professor Hans Geerlings at Shell. “Although the individual steps of the process have previously been demonstrated at various scales, no attempt had been made previously to integrate the end-to-end system. We look forward to working with the project partners to drive forward research and development in the next phase of the project on such an ambitious emerging technology.”
The next phase of the project will require the partners to determine the potential to implement the technology on an industrial scale. At this point, a glass of fuel has been created in a lab with simulated sunlight. It will take significant research and testing to determine if the technology can scale up and remain both cost and energy efficient. This evaluation is expected to be completed in 2015.
"This technology means we might one day produce cleaner and plentiful fuel for planes, cars and other forms of transport," says Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science. "This could greatly increase energy security and turn one of the main greenhouse gases responsible for global warming into a useful resource."
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