One-stage syngas to Sustainable Aviation Fuel unit from electrolyzed CO2 (CO2SAF)

Summary

The European Union (EU) aims to be climate-neutral by 2050. Among the different sectors, aviation represents 3.8% of total EU Greenhouse Gas emissions. The EU strategy on the aviation sector is to establish new targets on the use of conventional and innovative Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) to reduce aviation carbon emissions. SAF should meet the same specifications as kerosene-type jet fuel, which present a carbon number distribution in the range of C8-C16. Among the different routes to produce SAF, electro-SAF, which includes electrolytic processes, are foreseen to represent 28% of the total aviation fuel in 2050. In a climate-neutral economy, the carbon feedstock required for SAF production will be provided from biomass, biogenic waste or CO2 (coming from biomass combustion, inherent industry emissions or direct air capture). Electro-SAF from CO2 is a very incipient technology and still requires strong R&D efforts, and fossil fuel technologies as crude hydro-cracking need an adaption to the new context.

CO2SAF project targets to develop an innovative one-stage SAF production unit, by coupling Fischer-Tropsch (FT), hydro-cracking processes (HC) in a single unit. The carbon-based feedstock will be supplied from the product of an electrochemical CO2 cell, envisaging a final scheme of obtaining SAF by CO2 conversion using renewable power.

Acknowledgements (in Spanish)

CO2SAF (TED2021-132365B-I00) es un proyecto financiado por MCIU/AEI/10.13039/ 501100011033 y por la Unión Europea “NextGenerationEU”/PRTR.