Air travel is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, which are responsible for global warming. Developing non-fossil aviation fuels is therefore an important step towards mitigating climate change. Synhelion is committed to this task: the company aims to soon produce a carbon-neutral aviation fuel in commercial quantities and thus contribute to net zero in the transport sector. SWISS will be the first airline to use it.
The concept, developed at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, works like this: an array of mirrors focuses sunlight onto a central receiver in which a heat transfer medium is heated to 1500°C. This flows through a thermochemical reactor that converts water, carbon dioxide and, where present, biomethane into synthesis gas. This mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide can be processed not only into aviation fuel but also into diesel and petrol, using standard processes. Specially developed solid heat storage technology allows the plant to produce fuel around the clock. All products are carbon neutral, that is to say they emit only as much CO2 during combustion as was used in their production.
In 2016, ETH scientist Philipp Furler and co-founder Gianluca Ambrosetti created Synhelion AG with the aim of using the patented technology to set up commercial production of these ‘solar fuels’. Since then, they have built several pilot and demonstration plants, mainly to research scalability. In 2023, they erected an industrial production facility – which they named DAWN – in Jülich, Germany. It has a mirror field of 1500 m2 and produces a few thousand litres of solar fuel annually, for demonstration purposes. The next milestone is set for 2025, when the first commercial plant will start production in Spain, with an annual output of 1.25 million litres.
There are enormous expectations for more environmentally friendly air travel. Synhelion, which currently employs 40 people and has so far raised 60 million Swiss francs, has an equally large growth potential. The company’s vision encompasses a production capacity of 875 million litres of solar fuel by 2030 – enough to cover half of Switzerland’s kerosene needs. The production process can also be adapted to generate high-temperature process heat for industrial use. To that end, Synhelion has entered a partnership with cement manufacturer CEMEX.
Synhelion AG
