Kerosene out of carbon, water and sunlight

The mission of finding new, renewable forms of energy is bigger than ever. All across the world, scientists, labs and enthusiasts are looking for some form of sustainable fuel to replace the conventional fossil fuel the world is burning.

It appears the answer for this struggle comes from Germany. A group of German and international researchers found a way to convert carbon dioxide, water and sunlight into kerosene. The project was design to convert cheap existing material of different states into renewable fuel. Now, researchers plan to use this fuel to power different forms of transport, but their main objective is to deliver jet fuel. It would be a first fuel produced out of these three components, carbon dioxide, water and sunlight.

“What we do is take the carbon dioxide and water vapour, and introduce energy to produce fuel. It's actually a reverse combustion process,” said Patrick Le Clercq, head of the Institute of Combustion Technology under the German Aerospace Center.

The masterpiece of the project is a reactor that mixes up metal oxide with carbon monoxide and focused sunlight at high temperatures. These elements turn into a type of synthetic gas. The result is sent to Shell, and the giant energy company turns the gas into kerosene.

The Solar-Jet project is still in its first stages and the fuels produced are experimental, but it showed it has the potential.