Skip to main content

Carbon-neutral fuel made from sunlight and air

Researchers from ETH Zurich have developed a novel technology that produces liquid hydrocarbon fuels exclusively from sunlight and air. For the first time worldwide they demonstrate the entire thermochemical process chain under real field conditions. The new solar mini-refinery is located on the roof of ETH's Machine Laboratory building in Zurich.
Carbon-neutral fuels are crucial for making aviation and maritime transport sustainable. ETH researchers have developed a solar plant to produce synthetic liquid fuels that release as much CO2during their combustion as previously extracted from the air for their production. CO2 and water are extracted directly from ambient air and split using solar energy. This process yields syngas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which is subsequently processed into kerosene, methanol or other hydrocarbons. These drop-in fuels are ready for use in the existing global transport infrastructure.
Aldo Steinfeld, Professor of Renewable Energy Carriers at ETH Zurich, and his research group developed the technology. "This plant proves that carbon-neutral hydrocarbon fuels can be made from sunlight and air under real field conditions," he explained. "The thermochemical process utilises the entire solar spectrum and proceeds at high temperatures, enabling fast reactions and high efficiency." The research plant at the heart of Zurich advances ETH's research towards sustainable fuels.
A small demonstration unit with big potential
The solar mini-refinery on the roof of ETH Zurich proves that the technology is feasible, even under the climate conditions prevalent in Zurich. It produces around one decilitre of fuel per day. Steinfeld and his group are already working on a large-scale test of their solar reactor in a solar tower near Madrid, which is carried out within the scope of the EU project sun-to-liquid. The solar tower plant is presented to the public in Madrid at the same time today as the mini-refinery in Zurich.
The next project goal is to scale the technology for industrial implementation and make it economically competitive. "A solar plant spanning an area of one square kilometre could produce 20,000 litres of kerosene a day," said Philipp Furler, Director (CTO) of Synhelion and a former doctoral student in Steinfeld's group. "Theoretically, a plant the size of Switzerland -- or a third of the Californian Mojave Desert -- could cover the kerosene needs of the entire aviation industry. Our goal for the future is to efficiently produce sustainable fuels with our technology and thereby mitigate global CO2 emissions."
Two spin-offs already
Two spin-offs already emerged from Aldo Steinfeld's research group: Synhelion, founded in 2016, commercializes the solar fuel production technology. Climeworks, founded already in 2010, commercialises the technology for CO2 capture from air.
BOX How the new solar mini-refinery works
The process chain of the new system combines three thermochemical conversion processes: Firstly, the extraction of CO2 and water from the air. Secondly, the solar-thermochemical splitting of CO2 and water. Thirdly, their subsequent liquefaction into hydrocarbons. CO2 and water are extracted directly from ambient air via an adsorption/desorption process. Both are then fed into the solar reactor at the focus of a parabolic reflector. Solar radiation is concentrated by a factor of 3,000, generating process heat at a temperature of 1,500 degrees Celsius inside the solar reactor. At the heart of the solar reactor is a ceramic structure made of cerium oxide, which enables a two-step reaction -- the redox cycle -- to split water and CO2 into syngas. This mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide can then be processed into liquid hydrocarbon fuels through conventional methanol or Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.
Story Source:
Materials provided by ETH Zurich. 
Note: Content may be edited .

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dark matter may be older than the Big Bang

Dark matter, which researchers believe make up about 80% of the universe's mass, is one of the most elusive mysteries in modern physics. What exactly it is and how it came to be is a mystery, but a new Johns Hopkins University study now suggests that dark matter may have existed before the Big Bang. The study, published August 7 in  Physical Review Letters , presents a new idea of how dark matter was born and how to identify it with astronomical observations. "The study revealed a new connection between particle physics and astronomy. If dark matter consists of new particles that were born before the Big Bang, they affect the way galaxies are distributed in the sky in a unique way. This connection may be used to reveal their identity and make conclusions about the times before the Big Bang too," says Tommi Tenkanen, a postdoctoral fellow in Physics and Astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University and the study's author. While not much is known about its origins,...
Post a Comment
Read more

All of the starlight ever produced by the observable universe measured

All of the starlight ever produced by the observable universe measured The team's measurement, collected from Fermi data, has never been done before. This map of the entire sky shows the location of 739 blazars used in the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope’s measurement of the extragalactic background light (EBL). The background shows the sky as it appears in gamma rays with energies above 10 billion electron volts, constructed from nine years of observations by Fermi’s Large Area Telescope. The plane of our Milky Way galaxy runs along the middle of the plot. From their laboratories on a rocky planet dwarfed by the vastness of space, Clemson University scientists have managed to measure all of the starlight ever produced throughout the history of the observable universe. Astrophysicists believe that our universe, which is about 13.7 billion years old, began forming the first stars when it was a few hundred million years old. Since then, the universe has become a st...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reflecting antiferromagnetic arrangements

Reflecting antiferromagnetic arrangements : Brookhaven Lab physicists Claudio Mazzoli (left) and Mark Dean at the Coherent Soft X-ray Scattering (CSX) beamline at the National Synchrotron Light Source II. Mazzoli and Dean are part of the team of scientists led by Rutgers University that used the CSX beamline to image some magnetic domains in an iron-based 'antiferromagnetic' material. The ability to image these domains is key to developing spintronics, or spin electronics, for practical applications. A team led by Rutgers University and including scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has demonstrated an x-ray imaging technique that could enable the development of smaller, faster, and more robust electronics. Described in a paper published on Nov. 27 in  Nature Communications , the technique addresses a primary limitation in the emerging research field of "spintronics," or spin electronics, using magneti...
Post a Comment
Read more