How to make jet fuel from sunlight, air and water vapor
Solar kerosene could one day provide aviation with a carbon-neutral fuel
By Nikk Ogasa
Jet fuel can now be siphoned from the air.
Or at least that’s the case in Móstoles, Spain, where researchers demonstrated that an outdoor system could produce kerosene, used as jet fuel, with three simple ingredients: sunlight, carbon dioxide and water vapor. Solar kerosene could replace petroleum-derived jet fuel in aviation and help stabilize greenhouse gas emissions, the researchers report in the July 20 Joule.
Burning solar-derived kerosene releases carbon dioxide, but only as much as is used to make it, says Aldo Steinfeld, an engineer at ETH Zurich. “That makes the fuel carbon neutral, especially if we use carbon dioxide captured directly from the air.”