Rotterdam The Hague Airport initiates study for the production of renewable jet fuel from air
31 May 2019
Rotterdam The Hague Airport and a European consortium led by EDL Anlagenbau Gesellschaft mbH signed a cooperation agreement to develop a demonstration plant that produces renewable jet fuel from air. This plant aims to be the first worldwide to offer renewable jet fuel from air to the market.
The study will define the concept and basic engineering for onsite production of renewable jet fuel from air at Rotterdam The Hague Airport. It will enable a cost estimate for both the actual construction of the plant and the fuel itself, which will be decisive for further project development.
Compared to conventional fossil-based jet fuels, renewable jet fuel from air has a significantly lower carbon footprint and fine particles emission. This project thus demonstrates a significant step towards a carbon-neutral aviation industry.
Following the study, a demonstration plant is to be realized and commissioned on the premises of the airport, producing about 1,000 liters of renewable jet fuel per day. This would be the first time ever that renewable jet fuel from air production exceeds laboratory scale of a few liters per day.
A series of proven technologies are linked to each other to achieve this:
CO2 is captured from ambient air by Climeworks’ direct air capture technology.
The gas is subsequently transformed into syngas through electrolysis, using electrolyzer cells developed by Sunfire.
The syngas is turned into synthetic hydrocarbons by means of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, enabled by Ineratec.
EDL takes care of the process to convert synthetic hydrocarbons into jet fuel and of the overall process and plant integration.
The entire process runs sustainably, using renewable energy, preferably produced on site from the airport’s solar panels.
SkyNRG, the global market leader for sustainable aviation Fuel solutions, is in this project responsible for the commercialization strategy. The first potential customer is Transavia.
The demonstration plant will be relatively compact. The architectural integration by Rotterdam based Urban Crossovers & Blueroom will ensure that the plant is part of the overall RHIA campus and fit in both its size and in its objectives.
The set-up of this plant is facilitated by the foundation Rotterdam The Hague Innovation Airport (RHIA), which was established by the airport and the City of Rotterdam. The foundation focuses on promoting four issues—Entrepreneurship, Energy & Environment, Education, and Emergency—through several innovative projects. The study on renewable jet fuel from air is the first of these projects.
It's the zombie of Green Freedom, only now with an unreliable energy supply!
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 31 May 2019 at 02:32 AM
Looks like greenwashing to me.
Better to get the CO2 from the steelworks in the DMX project - more concentrated CO2.
1 Ton of jet fuel per day - at what cost.
I do not think this will scale, so they'd be better putting their solar power into the grid, and/or buying electric buses.
Posted by: mahonj | 31 May 2019 at 05:40 AM
Replace the renewable energy source with a small modular nuclear reactor and then you've got something.
Posted by: Nick Lyons | 31 May 2019 at 06:45 AM
@Nick, or just put them on the grid.
A 747 burns about 10 tonnes of fuel / hour, so if you could reduce the number of flights by 1 per week, you'd be ahead.
Much easier to electrify ground or sea transport and just leave aviation alone, or reduce the number of planes flying.
A carbon tax on jet fuel would "help".
Posted by: mahonj | 31 May 2019 at 07:55 AM
Jet engines are straight through oil burners that eat up tons of fuel and produce tons of pollution and and CO2 in the upper atmosphere; Hopefully someday they can be replaced by hydrogen turbines, FCs and and/or electric motors
Posted by: Lad | 31 May 2019 at 05:04 PM
Replace them with beamed electric power.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 02 June 2019 at 06:12 AM
@EP,
lets assume it works, and can handle clouds etc.
How could you do beamed power across oceans ?
You would probably want a station every 10 miles.
That is a lot of stations (on boats, in this case).
Posted by: mahonj | 02 June 2019 at 09:58 AM
Aerostats at 160,000 feet or so. At that altitude the horizon is some 7 degrees (420 nautical miles) away; it wouldn't take too many to span the Atlantic.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 02 June 2019 at 10:07 AM