Liquid Fuels for Aviation and Maritime Applications - X2
X2 will seek to electrochemically convert CO2 into higher hydrocarbons for potential use as fuels in aviation and shipping. To do this, X2 will develop new catalysts to enable sustainable electrochemical production of liquid ≥C4 carbon chain products.
The aviation and shipping sectors are in need of scalable green alternatives to fossil-based fuels to lower CO2 emissions. This X-trail looks to solve that issue by using CO2 electrolysis to convert captured CO2 into green chemicals suitable as aviation and shipping fuels.
Aviation and shipping fuels require a high energy density to maximize the amount of energy stored in a confined volume. Currently, CO2 electrolysis is limited to 2 or 3 carbon chain molecules, which are not optimal for aviation since they have a low energy density. However, at higher temperatures and pressures, CO2 and H2 can form long, energy-dense carbon chains through the Fischer-Tropsch process. X2 will investigate a wide variety of electrocatalysts to determine the optimal catalyst for these higher temperature and pressure conditions.
As aviation and shipping are hard-to-decarbonize sectors, this area is in desperate need of scientific breakthroughs, which we hope to provide.