Solar energy could be key to making sustainable aviation fuel, research finds
In the UK, the University of Sheffield reported that a new way of making sustainable aviation fuel that could cut the reliance on used cooking oil as a feedstock, has been developed by a team of engineers led by the University of Sheffield.
The new technique captures CO2 from the air, combines it with hydrogen and then heats it using concentrated solar energy to produce the fuel.
In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers used comprehensive computer modeling and simulation to understand how and where this first-of-a-kind technology could function at an industrial scale.
Their analysis suggests that five countries across different continents could be suitable for such large-scale SAF production plants, due to their high levels of sunlight and low costs of hydrogen or land. These are: the United States, Chile, Spain, South Africa and China.
The solar-driven SAF technique was developed in collaboration with researchers from the East China University of Science and Technology.
Category: SAF
