In 2023, Swiss International Airlines (SWISS) will be the world’s first airline to use solar fuel for its airplanes. The process devised by Synhelion uses concentrated sunlight to produce carbon-neutral kerosene. With this collaboration, SWISS plans to substantially increase its use of sustainable aviation fuels in the next few years to help achieve its climate objectives.
In 2023, Swiss International Airlines (SWISS) will be the world’s first airline to use solar fuel for its airplanes. The process devised by Synhelion uses concentrated sunlight to produce carbon-neutral kerosene. With this collaboration, SWISS plans to substantially increase its use of sustainable aviation fuels in the next few years to help achieve its climate objectives.
The average global temperature continues to rise unabated. Amidst growing concerns around climate change, the aviation industry comes frequently under fire for its carbon emissions. To combat aviation pollution, the industry has been pursuing strategies with the focus on greener fuel, carbon offsets and utilizing the power of hydrogen.
One important player in this space is Swiss company Synhelion, an ETH spinoff that has successfully developed a technology to produce carbon-neutral aviation fuel (kerosene) from sunlight, a renewable source of energy.
Synhelion uses solar heat to convert CO2 into synthetic fuels – so-called solar fuels. Solar radiation is reflected by the mirror field, concentrated onto the receiver, and converted into high-temperature process heat. The generated heat is fed to the thermochemical reactor that produces syngas, a mixture of H2 and CO. The syngas is then processed by standard gas-to-liquids technology into fuels, such as gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel. Excess heat is saved in the thermal energy storage (TES) to enable continuous 24/7 operation.
Synhelion will build the world’s first-ever facility for the industrial production of solar fuel in Jülich (Germany) this year. Swiss International Airlines (SWISS) is set to become the first customer for the solar kerosene in 2023. Under the collaboration now concluded, SWISS and the Lufthansa Group will support the development of Synhelion’s planned commercial fuel production facility in Spain, too.
Since the technology is climate neutral – the same amount of CO2 is absorbed as is later emitted in the aircraft engine combustion - this aviation fuel is recognized as a SAF (which stands for Sustainable Aviation Fuel) that contributes significantly to decarbonization.
Synhelion was founded in 2016 as a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich . The company already works with international partners such as Lufthansa Group and Zurich Airport. The solar fuel technologies developed by the company are intended to replace fossil fuels of all types. As a next step, they aim to achieve their goals of being able to cover half of Switzerland’s jet fuel consumption by 2030 and half of the European jet fuel consumption by 2040 with their solar fuel.
