Scientists create the world’s first solar jet fuel

The dream of producing hydrocarbon fuels from carbon dioxide and sunlight is one step closer thanks to chemists in Europe who have made jet fuel from scratch in a solar reactor for the first time. Although the chemists only produced enough kerosene to fill a glass jar, they believe a full-scale solar concentrator could produce 20,000 litres of jet fuel a day. “This technology means we might one day produce cleaner and plentiful fuel for planes, cars and other forms of transport,” said Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.

Maybe we won’t suck up all of Earth’s resources and destroy our planet just yet. Scientists say that they have created solar jet fuel using just sunlight, water and carbon dioxide for the very first time. That’s basically creating fuel from thin air. It’s a damn impressive feat and puts us closer to the dream of creating renewable energy for our Earth-sucking moving boxes known as planes, cars and other transportation vehicles. European scientists have done this by using simulated, concentrated sunlight at a temperature of nearly 1300 degrees Fahrenheit to convert and separate water and carbon dioxide into a synthetic gas made of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. That synthetic gas can be turned into kerosene. The scientists, who’ve been working at this for four years under the SOLAR-JET project, have only made a jar of the solar jet fuel so far but they imagine a future where 20,000 liters of jet fuel could be made per day from a full-scale version. If they’re able to do that, cars, planes, and other vehicles will have much cleaner and endless amounts of fuel.