Metafuels and PSI receive CHF 4.4M grant from Swiss Federal Office of Energy to construct e-SAF pilot plant
30 July 2024
Metafuels and PSI, the developers of a technology for sustainable aviation fuel compatible with existing aircraft, announced a CHF 4.4-million funding grant from the Swiss Government’s Federal Office of Energy to support the implementation and operation of a pilot facility based on Metafuels’ sustainable aviation fuel (e-SAF) technology (earlier post)—aerobrew—which is being developed in collaboration with the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, Switzerland’s largest research institute for natural and engineering sciences.
Set to be the country’s first such plant, the facility will be installed at the PSI campus in Villigen AG and will focus on demonstrating groundbreaking sustainable aviation fuel technology for large-scale commercial deployment.
Metafuels, along with technology development partner PSI, have secured the grant funding under the Pilot & Demonstration (P&D) program, due to the innovative nature of their technology and close alignment with the key objectives of the Swiss Energy Strategy 2050.
Metafuels focuses on sustainable aviation fuel made using renewable electricity (e-SAF)—a further environmentally-refined version of what has emerged as the leading long-term strategy to decarbonize air travel. It does not require the re-engineering or re-purchase of aircraft, nor a redesign of the underlying fueling infrastructure which supports both commercial and cargo airlines, route planning, and the existing customer experience, all of which make it an attractive and versatile option.
aerobrew e-SAF can replace conventional kerosene regardless of the size and type of aircraft or whether it operates short- or long-haul. aerobrew technology aims to achieve the lowest cost of production through high efficiency and ultra-high yield of e-SAF. Similarly, the technology is expected to achieve high environmental performance through an up to 90% reduction of life cycle emissions and not chipping away at food and feed supply chains.
Construction of the new pilot plant will take place in a three-storey research hall on the campus of the Paul Scherrer Institute. It will be part of the Energy System Integration or ESI Platform—a test platform, where promising approaches to energy conversion processes for research and industry can be tested in all their complex connections and interrelations.
The aerobrew technology uses a proprietary process for the conversion of green methanol to e-SAF. Green methanol is produced from green hydrogen (H₂) and sustainably-sourced carbon dioxide. Green H₂ can be generated from water electrolysis driven by renewable electricity, while CO₂ can be captured from biogenic sources including wastes and residues in the short-term—and through direct air capture in the long-term.
The pilot plant for converting methanol into e-SAF on this scale will be the first of its kind in Switzerland. The aim is to demonstrate the aerobrew technology, with the next step being scale-up to large-scale commercial use.
I'm all in favour of testing and improving SAF production technology, as in my view we mostly have to try things out to see what works instead of too much theorising.
What I find absurd is to extrapolate that we can continue to expand the air fleet on the assumption that we will get it going economically, when to my knowledge there is nothing at all to back up the notion that it can be produced in anything like the needed quantities, and that at huge environmental costs and only partially reducing CO2 -in fact in view of the projected increases in the size of the fleet, just moderating the increase marginally.
I find it hilarious in a dark fashion that Boeing are now apparently claiming safety concerns for the use of hydrogen in air transport, no doubt to justify their non existent program.
It however seems reasonable to doubt that Boeing can build hydrogen planes to fly safely, since they don't manage that for kerosene planes.
Posted by: Davemart | 30 July 2024 at 03:18 AM