London, March 30 A team of engineers from the University of Sheffield has developed a new way to produce sustainable aviation fuel that could reduce reliance on used cooking oil as a feedstock.
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 modelling 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 large-scale sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production plants, due to their high levels of sunlight and low costs of hydrogen or land. These are: the US, Chile, Spain, South Africa, and China.
The research follows recent statistics from the UK's SAF mandate, which show that the majority of SAF in the UK is made from used cooking oil.
Meihong Wang, Professor of Energy Systems at the University of Sheffield, who led the research, said: "Decarbonizing the aviation industry is key to slowing global warming and achieving net zero. SAF has emerged as a promising solution to meet energy needs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions."
The solar-driven SAF technique was developed in collaboration with researchers from the East China University of Science and Technology. It improves on an existing proposed way of making SAF called Direct Air Capture and CO2 Utilisation (DACCU), which is currently in the research and development phase.
The researchers have shown in their study that replacing fossil fuels with concentrated solar energy is capable of providing the intense heat needed to create the chemical reactions to produce SAF.