Project R-16032

Innovative Process Integration for CO2 conversion to Sustainable Aviation Fuels (Research)

The aviation industry is responsible for 14% of CO2 emissions associated with transport in Europe; in Belgium, the jet fuel market is roughly the same size as the gasoline market. As a hard-to-abate sector, aviation will remain reliant on liquid fuels for the foreseeable future, and sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) with significantly lower lifecycle GHG emissions will play a key role in achieving the EU's climate targets. The European Commission forces the adoption of SAF through blending obligations, with SAF having to account for 6% of jet fuel in 2030, rapidly rising to 70% in 2050. This creates a large new market for the valorization of novel technologies which is expected to grow to more than €500 billion in 2050. Current SAF production costs can be 5 times higher than conventional fuels, with low carbon and/or energy efficiencies. Innovative Process Integration for CO2 conversion to Sustainable Aviation Fuels (e-SAF) will develop two renewable-electricity-driven routes from CO2 and H2O, one via plasmabased CO2 conversion integrated with Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, and a second via electrocatalytic CO2 reduction coupled with oligomerization. Initial process simulations show that SAF can be produced with an energy cost of 16 kWh/kg SAF, vastly outperforming the state-of-the-art. In all steps, conversion and/or selectivity are limited. Improving these by catalyst and process optimization is a first objective of e-SAF. A second objective is the integration of the individual steps into overall carbon and energy-efficient processes. A third objective is to identify and quantify the main drivers of the lifecycle GHG emissions and production costs. The advisory board of e-SAF covers the full value chain, from Flemish spin-off companies in plasma and electrocatalysis technology to multinational energy companies, from SAF marketing and infrastructure companies to international airlines, illustrating the strong industrial interest in e-SAF.

01 October 2025 - 30 September 2029