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Melbourne, Australia: Researchers in Australia have developed a carbon-conversion technology that could help turn industrial emissions into ingredients for low-emissions jet fuel.
The new system simplifies carbon recycling by combining carbon removal and conversion into a single process, reducing energy use and complexity that have hindered previous methods, offering a potential tool for decarbonizing heavy industries and aviation, said a statement of Australia's Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) on Friday.
Traditional carbon conversion's separate steps raised costs and slowed progress with inefficient, energy-intensive methods, said Distinguished Professor Ma Tianyi from RMIT's School of Science.
"By bringing the steps of conversion together, we have been able to simplify the process and reduce unnecessary energy losses," said Ma.
The technology turns carbon dioxide from industrial exhaust gases into basic chemical building blocks that can be used to make jet fuel and other products that are currently made mostly from fossil resources, said the study published in Nature Energy.
Aviation is among the hardest sectors to decarbonize due to limited sustainable fuel supplies. RMIT's team has built a 3-kW prototype and plans a 20-kW pilot with industry partners, targeting commercial readiness in about six years, said the team.
