RMIT University/Will Wright
It will help transform industrial emissions into aviation fuel, simplifying carbon dioxide recycling.
From Australia comes news of an innovation that could have a major impact in the fight against climate change.
This summarizes what this innovation promises. Its priority is to use exhaust gases and transform them into useful material.
Researchers at RMIT University have developed a carbon dioxide (CO₂) conversion technology that could help transform industrial emissions into components to produce aviation fuel.
The approach seeks to simplify CO₂ recycling by integrating, into a single system, the gas capture and conversionreducing required energy and operational complexity — two frequent obstacles in solutions currently under development.
According to Professor Tianyi Ma, carbon conversion has often been seen as a set of separate steps, which increases costs and hinders progress.
“Current approaches have often been inefficient and energy intensive”, adding that the integration of steps allows “to simplify the process and reduce unnecessary energy losses”.
O system converts CO₂which is in industrial exhaust gases, in basic “chemical blocks” which can be used to manufacture aviation fuel and other products today mostly derived from fossil resources.
The technology does not directly produce jet fuel: it transforms CO₂ into ingredients that can then be upgraded to low-emission fuels and other carbon-based products through already established industrial processes.
The difficulty of aviation
Aviation continues to be one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize.
Battery-powered aircraft are unlikely to respond to long-haul routes at scale, while demand for sustainable aviation fuels continues to outstrip global supply.
In this context, the authors present the solution as complementary — an additional route to obtaining raw materials for lower-emission fuels, especially near large industrial sources where it is difficult to reduce emissions.
The was published in Nature Energy. Federico Dattila, from the Polytechnic University of Turin, emphasizes that advances bring the industry of low energy systems capable of converting CO₂ in a fully integrated process.
To take the technology beyond the laboratory, the team designed and completed a prototype three kilowatts for testing under industrial conditions and plans to move to a 20-kilowatt pilot to validate performance and integration with real emissions sources.
The goal is to develop a 100-kilowatt demonstration system over the next five years and reach commercial-scale readiness in about six years, in a phased path to test cost and durability.
For Doug Hartmann, technology suggests that reducing emissions can go hand in hand with greater efficiency and better use of energy, without ignoring the economic demands of the industry.
