Consortium launches Zenid – Sustainable Aviation Fuel from Air
The aviation industry is responsible for 3% of global manmade CO2 emissions and has the challenging objective to reduce these emissions in the next decade significantly. Unlike road transport, aviation cannot switch to electric or hydrogen propulsion yet and therefore depends on sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). SAF purely made from air via direct air capture technology and renewable electricity offers a carbon-neutral solution suitable to meet the industry’s high demands for renewable fuels in the future.
The next step towards constructing a demonstration plant
In February this year a high-level conference on Synthetic SAF was hosted by the Dutch Minister for Infrastructure and Water Management, Cora van Nieuwenhuizen. This set a new milestone for in the development of Zenid. A consortium consisting of the Rotterdam The Hague Airport (part of Royal Schiphol Group), Rotterdam The Hague Innovation Airport, global leader for SAF SkyNRG and Swiss direct air capture pioneers Climeworks who have agreed to further investigate the construction of a demonstration plant producing fully circular SAF with 100% CO2 derived from the air. Based on the positive outcome of a feasibility study for such a plant conducted earlier.
The demonstration plant will be powered by regionally sourced renewable energy and combines several innovative technologies: a direct air capture plant provides CO2 to a highly efficient co-electrolysis unit, that turns the CO2 and added water into syngas. The syngas is transformed into liquid hydrocarbons by a modular Fischer-Tropsch reactor and then refined into sustainable aviation fuel.
The Zenid consortium signed an MoU with global energy company Uniper to support the engineering and operation of the demonstration plant. For the future availability of fully circular SAF from air, it is crucial to kick-start the scale-up today. The goal of Zenid is to enable a net zero aviation industry in the long-term.
The history of the project
In 2019, Royal Schiphol Group financed a study to investigate the feasibility of a demonstration plant able to produce SAF from air, water and renewable electricity. The European consortium conducting the study was led by the German service provider EDL and further consisted of Climeworks, Sunfire, Ineratec, SkyNRG and Urban Crossovers. Zenid is now taking a next step with the support of these technology partners.
Christoph Gebald, Climeworks said, ‘The launch of Zenid shows the commitment of the industry towards fully circular fuels from air and their role to substantially reduce aviation’s CO2 emissions.’
Maarten van Dijk, SkyNRG: ‘Sustainable aviation fuel produced synthetically from CO2 is one of the promising technological pathway necessary to transition towards a sustainable aviation industry, that’s why SkyNRG is proud to support the Zenid project.
For more information about Zenid: www.zenidfuel.com
About Climeworks
Climeworks empowers people to reverse climate change by permanently removing carbon dioxide from the air.
One of two things happens to the Climeworks air-captured carbon dioxide: either it is returned to earth, stored safely and permanently away for millions of years, or it is upcycled into climate-friendly products such as carbon-neutral fuels and materials, fertilizer for greenhouses or bubbles in your fizzy drinks. The Climeworks direct air capture technology runs exclusively on clean energy, and the modular CO2 collectors can be stacked to build machines of any size.
Founded by engineers Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher, Climeworks strives to inspire 1 billion people to act now and remove carbon dioxide from the air. Together we can build a climate-positive world. Join us!
To learn more visit: https://www.climeworks.com
