From CO₂ to Aviation Fuel: Are We Facing a New Paradigm for SAF?

Converting CO₂ and hydrogen directly into aviation fuel components through a single catalytic step.

For years, producing Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) on a large scale has been constrained by one fundamental question: where can we obtain sustainable carbon? Routes based on used oils, fats, or biomass are important, but they have clear limitations in terms of availability and scalability.

Now, a technology developed in China is proposing a radically different alternative: Converting CO₂ and hydrogen directly into aviation fuel components through a single catalytic step.

And the most interesting part is that the technology has already moved from the laboratory to thousand-tonne-scale pilot operation.

A thousand-ton-per-year pilot plant

In Sichuan, China, Sichuan Golden Elephant Sincerity Chemical Co., Ltd. has commissioned, together with the team from Tsinghua University led by Wei Fei and Zhang Chenxi and Sichuan Aolifen Catalytic Materials, a pilot facility with a capacity of several thousand tonnes per year for CO₂ hydrogenation and SAF production.

The facility successfully completed a continuous 72-hour test, after which the technology was evaluated by an expert committee organized by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation. The committee described the development as a “world-first” and considered the technology to be at an internationally advanced level.

The challenge: turning CO₂ into useful hydrocarbons

The CO₂ is an extremely stable molecule. Converting it selectively into hydrocarbons with the appropriate carbon-chain range for applications such as aviation fuel requires solving two problems simultaneously:
  • Activating CO₂
  • Controlling the formation and growth of carbon chains
Traditionally, a CO₂-based Power-to-Liquid route may require several stages: conversion of CO₂ into syngas through Reverse Water-Gas Shift (RWGS), Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, and subsequent upgrading operations. The approach developed by this team seeks to integrate these functions into a single catalytic system and a single reactor.

The key element: the catalyst

At the heart of technology is a bifunctional catalyst based on metal oxides and molecular sieves. According to information published by Tsinghua University, the team developed a strategy known as “catalytic shunting” or “catalytic splitting,” based on multiple active sites.

According to the research team, the concept is to have a bifunctional material that enables the presence of sites that promote CO₂ activation and hydrogenation, together with sites that facilitate carbon-carbon coupling.

The result is an integrated pathway in which CO₂ + H₂ can be directly converted into aviation kerosene components.

And this raises a particularly interesting point for those of us working in catalysts: the innovation lies not only in finding a more active catalyst, but in designing a catalytic architecture capable of simultaneously controlling activity, selectivity, and stability.

During the industrial test, the process was achieved:

Total CO2 97%
Selectivity toward aviation fuel components 92%
Selectivity toward aromatics 86%
CO2

Approximately 3.65 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of fuel component produced

In addition, the facility had already accumulated more than 2,000 hours of safe operation, while maintaining stable CO₂ conversion and product selectivity. These figures are important because the real challenge for Power-to-Liquid technologies is not simply demonstrating that a reaction works in the laboratory. It is demonstrated that it can operate for thousands of hours, with a stable catalyst, in an industrial reactor, and with reasonable economics.

Why could this be important for the future of SAF?

The main conceptual advantage of this route is that it changes the origin of the carbon.

Instead of relying exclusively on biological feedstock, the carbon can come from industrial CO₂ while the hydrogen can be produced through electrolysis powered by renewable electricity.

This opens the door to a new pathway:

Industrial CO₂ + H₂ → Hydrocarbons → Aviation fuel components

And it connects three sectors that are normally considered separately:

  • Chemical industry and CO₂ capture
  • Renewable energy and H₂ production
  • Aviation and sustainable fuels

In fact, the project uses CO₂ from industrial processes and specifically considers future integration with hydrogen produced from renewable electricity.

MERYT's Vision

At MERYT Catalysts & Innovation, we closely follow this type of development because we believe that the future of the energy transition will depend on connecting catalysis, advanced materials, and processes capable of transforming CO₂ into value-added resources. The development of technologies such as this demonstrates that catalytic innovation will be one of the keys to making the next generation of sustainable fuels a reality.

https://sichuan.scol.com.cn/ggxw/202608/83307619.html
https://www.fuelcellchina.com/Industry_information_details/9224.html
https://en.gesc.cn/company_detail/5.html