Capture of CO₂ and jet fuel

If the targets of the Paris Agreement are to be achieved, it is essential to develop technologies to capture and utilise CO2, because the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is still rising. At the same time, there is an increasing need for liquid fuels in the heavy transport sector, such as aviation and marine transport.

“In our thesis we have focused on capture of CO2 direct from the atmosphere, and using it to produce jet fuel. Specifically, we propose a high-temperature calcination-based technology for the carbon capture process,” say the two authors of the Master’s thesis, Maria Paulsen and Sebastian Petersen from AAU Energy. Their thesis won the second prize of the Vissing Foundation Energy Prize in 2022.

Subsequently, the commercial Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is used to produce jet fuel. The theoretical modelling of the thermochemical process was supported by experimental work to estimate the energy consumption and assess the technical potential of the combined system.

As Maria Paulsen and Sebastian Petersen explain: “It was concluded that a strong synergistic effect is achieved by integrating the air capture process with the fuel synthesis. The results show in addition that the primary energy consumption in the system is related to the fuel synthesis. Thus this technology for direct air capture of CO2 can be competitive in a commercial context for CO2 neutral jet fuel production.”