Page 39 - The STAT Trade Times September 2022 Issue

When we talk about the feed-
stock used for the solar fuel,
Synhelion is using a particular
Renewable Energy Directive, or
RED-II certified biogenic meth-
ane for its processes. Can you
comment on this?
In 2019, we demonstrated in a solar mini-
refinery that solar fuel can be produced by
using CO2 and water captured from the air
with direct air capture. So, this is possible in
the future, and we want to do that. How-
ever, right now, direct air capture is still
Photo: Synhelion scaled up. That's why we are also looking
relatively expensive, and it has to be fully
at alternative CO2 sources. This is where

if you want to close the carbon cycle, you
Synhelion's solar receiver biogenic CO2 comes in because basically,
have to ensure that the CO2 you're using
When it comes to the technology Yes, we can say that there's a lot of interest came out of the atmosphere, and you can
we have developed, one of them is the from the whole airline industry since almost either take CO2 out of the atmosphere
control system of the mirrors as you have all airlines are now looking at who will be with biomass, or you can take it out with
to operate them very accurately so that producing fuel in the future because they machines which facilitate direct air capture.
they focus the sunlight exactly on the will all need access to sustainable aviation Currently, we are starting with biomass. We
spot where you want it so that you don't fuels. But right now, it's not really available use biogas, which is a mixture of methane
have any spillage. Then the second part is on the market yet in larger quantities. Lots and CO2, from a local paper mill, for the
the solar receiver which is located in the of airlines approached us and are interested industrial-scale facility that we will commis-
very bright spot at the top of the tower. in our roadmap and how much fuel we sion next year. It is a local paper mill that
Here, the sunlight gets concentrated, and should be producing in the future. produces toilet paper. They recycle the
then inside the receiver, the concentrated biomass that they are using from trees re-
sunlight is turned into process heat that What is Synhelion’s peatedly. In the end, there is some left over
we can use. The process heat is then long-term vision? that they cannot recycle further but burn
delivered to the reactor and drives a ther- We want to decarbonise the transportation in a waste incineration plant. For us, this is
mochemical reaction to produce syngas, sector, in particular long-distance trans- a very valuable feedstock because we can
a mixture of carbon monoxide and water. portation – the type of transportation that use that as a carbon source for our solar
The fourth part of the technology is cannot be electrified. Aviation is the best fuels. So that's the biomass that we use for
thermal energy storage because, in order example of this, as it’s clear that aviation this first plant that we are building.
to produce economically, you have to be fuel will be needed for a long time. They
able to operate the plant 24 hours a day, offer the best energy density of fuel that is What kind of regulatory
all year round. Therefore, thermal energy compatible with existing technology. So, we framework would help the SAF
storage is very important. During the day, have a steep scale-up roadmap in front of industry in general? Also, what
when we produce the heat in the receiver, us. Next year, we want to commission the kind of policy environment
a fraction of the heat goes into the stor- first industrial demonstration plant, where would enable the SAF industry
age, and at night you keep the reactor we produce sustainable aviation fuel. By to scale better?
running with the heat that you stored 2025, we want to commission a commercial I would say two main things. One is that
earlier in the thermal energy storage. plant in Spain, and that plant will produce the European Union (EU) is introducing
about 500,000 litres of fuel per year. By 2030, SAF quotas now. Basically, the EU is saying
SWISS is set to be the world’s we want to multiply these plants to reach that by 2030, 6% of the kerosene has to be
first airline to use Synhelion a production capacity of about 875 million SAF, and they want to increase this quota
solar fuel in 2023, with SWISS litres of fuel per year. With that, you could over time. By 2050, 85% of the jet fuel used
and the Lufthansa Group’s stra- already cover about half of Switzerland's jet in Europe should be SAF. This helps us be-
tegic collaboration with Synhe- fuel demand or about 7% of Germany's jet cause we know that there will be a market
lion to bring its solar aviation fuel demand. Then we want to go in for the for our fuels. The other one is support for
fuel to market. Apart from this, big rollout, where by 2040, we expect that financing the first demonstration plants in
are there any other airlines that we could produce about 50 billion litres order to be able to get to the point where
have expressed interest in us- of fuel per year – enough to cover half of we can build and finance full-scale solar
ing solar fuel technology? Europe’s jet fuel demand. fuel plants. 

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