...AND CHEAPER...:

Using sunlight, along with carbon dioxide and water vapor captured from air, a new solar tower can produce kerosene suitable for fueling airplanes. The system, details of which have been published in the journal Joule, is the first to be successfully demonstrated in the field at a large scale.

Aviation is responsible for around five percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. While other modes of transportation are on their way to electrification, electric airplanes are still many years away. In the near term, the industry plans to reduce carbon emissions using sustainable aviation fuels that are made today from waste fats and oils. Several research teams are developing ways to make them from paper industry waste and food scraps.

But some want to make carbon-neutral aviation fuel from captured carbon dioxide emissions. This involves turning carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide using heat, and then mixing it with hydrogen to make liquid fuels. The green hydrogen is typically produced by splitting water using electricity.

Aldo Steinfeld and his colleagues at ETH Zurich have devised a more sustainable way to do this using only solar energy. 

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