Brussels, 29/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - “Renewable kerosene” is no longer to be considered an oxymoron or the results of an alchemist's theorem, after researchers working on the SOLAR-JET project, which is co-funded by the EU, presented the results of their research into the world's first “solar” jet fuel, on Monday 28 April.
The researchers remain cautiously optimistic: the initial results of their work “give hope” that, in future, kerosene or any liquid hydrocarbon fuels could be produced in large quantities from carbon dioxide (CO2), water and sunlight. But today, they have proved the feasibility of the idea. As Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, who is responsible for research and innovation, pointed out, the prospects of this discovery are relevant to industry and transport as much as they are to geopolitics and climate policy.
“This technology means we might one day produce clean and plentiful fuel for planes, cars and other forms of transport”, and could at the same time “greatly increase energy security”, she said. She also highlighted the collateral benefits of turning “one of the main greenhouse gases responsible for global warming into a useful resource”. The coordinator of the project, Dr Andreas Sizmann, was just as prophetic: “With this first-ever prove-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”.
What the researchers have succeeded in creating for the first time is a functional “solar” jet fuel, in other words a complete system for the production of renewable kerosene, by using concentrated light to transform CO2 and water into synthetic gas (syngas), which can be used as a source of high-temperature energy. Although the final stage of the process - turning syngas into kerosene - is already a reasonably well-established technique (Fisher-Tropsch process) and even certified for use by existing aircraft, the same cannot be said for the production of syngas through solar radiation. The whole innovation of the SOLAR-JET project lies in the development of the former technique and in combining the two stages, stressed Professor Hans Geerlings, who works for Shell, one of the project partners.
Obviously, bringing this jet fuel to the market is now the priority objective. The project participants, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Bauhaus Luftfahrt, the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Shell Global Solutions and the management partner, ARTTIC, will try to determine whether large-scale production is possible at a competitive cost. The EU contributed €2.2 million to this programme, which was launched in June 2011, through its seventh framework programme for research and innovation (2007-2013). (JK)