The possible future of aviation? A company in Rotterdam is scaling production of the world’s first jet fuel made partly from capturing carbon dioxide.
It works by mixing hydrogen with CO2 to form syngas, which can be turned into jet fuel. SkyNRG’s trial plant aims to produce 1,000 litres of syngas a day, and is powered itself from solar panels. The goal is to start producing jet fuel commercially by 2021.
The problem, though, is cost – it is currently much more expensive to make syngas than it is to make traditional fossil-based fuel. And critics including Friends of the Earth have questioned its viability due to the enormous amount of syngas that would be needed to fuel a longhaul flight, making it impractical, they say.
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The possible future of aviation? A company in Rotterdam is scaling production of the world’s first jet fuel made partly from capturing carbon dioxide.
It works by mixing hydrogen with CO2 to form syngas, which can be turned into jet fuel. SkyNRG’s trial plant aims to produce 1,000 litres of syngas a day, and is powered itself from solar panels. The goal is to start producing jet fuel commercially by 2021.
The problem, though, is cost – it is currently much more expensive to make syngas than it is to make traditional fossil-based fuel. And critics including Friends of the Earth have questioned its viability due to the enormous amount of syngas that would be needed to fuel a longhaul flight, making it impractical, they say.