Carbon-neutral Kerosene Made from Water Could Stop ‘Shame of Flying’

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – German scientists and business leaders are developing a project to create what they hope will be the first viable market for a carbon-neutral version of the kerosene that already fuels the most modern aircraft.

The science is still based on chemical reactions which were pioneered in Germany in 1925, but instead of converting coal and other fossil fuels, as the oil-hungry Nazis did during World War II, green kerosene is derived from water and extracts carbon dioxide from the air during the process.

This requires large amounts of electricity generated from renewable resources to ensure carbon neutrality, and breaks down water into oxygen and hydrogen for subsequent combination with carbon.

The project is being supervised by the University of Bremen, in a 100-percent German public-private research strategy that previously created the MP3. The German system, which the US is attempting to replicate, aims to produce the green fuels needed for economic sectors such as aviation and heating, which rely heavily on oil imports.

“Synthetic fuel is the only current approach to truly becoming CO2 neutral in the conceivable future,” said Carsten Spohr, CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa, at a conference on sustainable aviation in the German capital in November.

Although green kerosene releases carbon when burned, the process is neutral because it recycles greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and does not require more fossil fuels to be removed from the ground.

The German company working with the consortium expects that in five years green kerosene will account for five percent of the fuel used by the company. The non-fossil kerosene is being produced at the Klesch Group’s Heide oil refinery near the North Sea, using renewable energy supplied by local wind farms.

Other countries such as Canada and the US are already deploying Power-X technology to capture carbon dioxide and store it underground, but so far only with very minor proof-of-concept models to make a notable difference in the battle against climate change.

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