An EU-funded research project called Solar Jet has produced the world’s first ‘solar’ jet fuel from water and carbon dioxide. Researchers have successfully demonstrated the entire production chain for renewable kerosene using concentrated light as a high temperature energy source. The project is still at an experimental stage and just a glassful of jet fuel was produced in lab conditions using simulated sunlight. The four-year Solar-Jet project was launched in June 2011 and is receiving €2.2 million EU funding from the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. In the next phase of the project, the partners plan to optimize the solar reactor and assess whether the technology will work on a larger scale and at competitive cost. Finding new, sustainable sources of energy will remain a priority under Horizon 2020, the seven-year EU research and innovation programme launched on Jan 1, 2014.
Source: Times of India
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