Jet fuel is a modern mystery, commercial airplanes can carry hundreds of passengers around the world, and military aircraft can regularly break the sound speed.
However, the jet fuel we know may be in the chopping block because the world is trying to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. Commercial Airlines is in charge of 2.5 % of all carbon pollution. This is a share that is likely to grow as other industries electrify, and is an option that cannot be not absent on long -distance flights.
However, if jet fuel can be made from carbon dioxide, there is a possibility that you will be able to stay in execution.
A small number of startups have been racing to develop a cheap and efficient way to convert CO2 into hydrocarbon with high energy density using electricity. However, replacing inexpensive fossil fuels is a tall hurdle, and many companies could not get over.
But one startup believes that a fairly simple approach has solved the problem. “We are not always trying to reform chemistry,” said Joe Rodden, a co -founder and CEO of Lydian. “We are trying to make plants and equipment much lower and flexibly operated.”
The first half of the equation -cheap equipment has a clear effect on the ultimate cost of Lydian's electronic fuel. The second is more subtle, taking advantage of the habits of regenerated power. Sometimes it's really cheap.
Lydian uses these low prices by converting CO2 and hydrogen into jet fuel and oxygen using a very efficient catalyst. This allows the company to make the most of the expired offer. “By reducing the usage rate by 20 % or 30 %, the power cost can be reduced to half,” Rodden said.
For an experienced plant operator, running equipment may not sound like the most profitable approach. Industrial facilities like Lydian are usually operated 24 hours a day, 24 hours a day, to narrow the most products from expensive equipment.
“The chemical process industry is very good for optimizing these plants in the context of 24 hours a day,” said Rodden. “But if you break the assumption, you will start to make several different conclusions so that the component does not make sense. Can you remove it?”
Rodden stated that his company has been able to eliminate multiple complex parts that add materials and manufacturing costs because the Rydian reactor is operated in a part -time time.
As a result, Rodden said that if the power price was about 3 to 4 cents per kilowatt, it could produce biofuels and competitive electronic fuel. He added that the power prices were cheaper than that, and by the end of the ten years, he added that they could compete with fossil fuels.
Competitiveness depends on which market it sells. For example, in Europe, it exceeds the amount of pollution generated by the airline. This promises to increase the demand for biofuels and electronic fuel, even if it is more expensive than conventional jet fuel. In other places, small airports that must be paid brilliantly for the delivery of jet fuel may choose to set up some lidian reactors and make them independently.
However, Lydian is also beyond commercial aviation. The US military is the world's largest user in fossil fuels, and jet fuel constitutes a considerable part. Securing supplies at base in the United States is not so problematic. However, on the front base of the conflict zone, fuel must be shipped, and you need to create a vulnerable, expensive and long supply chain for enemy attacks. Approximately 3,000 U.S. forces, Iraqi and Afghanistan, were killed or injured, supply water and fuel between 2003 and 2007.
“It's an application that may be almost unlimited,” Rodden said.
Rodden assumes a lidian reactor that generates fuel as needed instead of a long supply chain, driving the bass solar, wind, or nuclear power. Startup won the DARPA Award to further develop technology.
Recently, Lydian has wrapped the construction of a pilot factory in North Carolina. If you think that Boeing 737-800 is burning for one and a half minutes on the cruising advanced, it may not be heard much. However, Rodden said it was 100 times more than the company produced in the lab and 10,000 times more than two and a half years ago. Lydian operates a pilot for several years and collects data while constructing a commercial factory that wants to end in 2027.
If Lydian maintains such momentum and the world can reduce the use of fossil fuels, electronic fuel may be the last hydrocarbon.