The plant aims to be the first worldwide to offer renewable jet fuel from air to the market.
Renewable jet fuel from air has a significantly lower carbon footprint and fine particles emission compared to fossil-based jet fuels.
Following the study, the demonstration plant is set to be commissioned on the basis of the airport producing approximately 1,000 litres of renewable jet fuel per day.
This would be the first time that renewable jet fuel from air production exceeds laboratory scale.
A series of technologies are linked to each other to achieve the jet fuel. First, CO2 is captured from ambient air using Climeworks’ direct air capture (DAC) technology.
The gas is subsequently transformed into syngas through electrolysis, using electrolyser cells developed by Sunfire. Then, the syngas is turned into synthetic hydrocarbon by means of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, enabled by Ineratec.
Finally, 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, thanks to renewable energy, preferably produced on site from the airport’s solar panels.
SkyNRG is in the project responsible for the commercialisation strategy. Transavia has committed itself to the plan and indicated it intends to reduce its CO2 exhaust with renewable fuel from air in the future.
The set-up of the plant is facilitated by the foundation Rotterdam The Hague Innovation Airport (RHIA), which was established by the airport and the City of Rotterdam.