Synthetic kerosene is the greatest hope of the aviation industry as it would enable environmentally-friendly flights in the future. Purely electric propulsion systems can only be used for smaller sport aircrafts, due among other things to the high weight of even the best lithium-ion batteries. For this reason, large passenger jets continue to depend on liquid fuels.
A group of researchers has now managed to synthesize the coveted kerosene out of water and carbon dioxide using sun heat.
“We have been the first to demonstrate the complete process chain, from water and carbon dioxide to kerosene, in a solar tower system,” said Aldo Steinfeld, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich. In order to achieve this result, Mr. Steinfeld and colleagues used a solar power plant in Móstoles near Madrid.
More interesting details can be found in this article.
We are going to follow the development of this project with great interest!
