Designing the materials for production of tailored and sustainable aviation fuels from waste CO2 and water

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Development of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) from renewable resources is critical to help UK totransition to a low carbon future. This project aims to produce sustainable and tailored jet fuels bydesigning novel materials (photo-electrocatalysts) using renewable energy from industriallysourced CO2. For the aviation industry, it is vital that the jet fuel should comprise of single andtailored hydrocarbon instead of a mixture or blend of fuels to maximize the fuel efficiency whichis a grand challenge for scientific community. In this project, twostep process will be carried outto obtain "tailored" jet fuel molecules. In the first step, CO2 will be converted to C1, C2 moleculesusing binary copper alloys (CuIn, CuSn) and then novel catalyst materials will be designed (multimetallic)to "stitch" C1,C2 compounds together to obtain tailored SAF. For this purpose, anintegrated materials design (bottom-up method to develop novel Copper based photo-electrodes)and engineering for reactor design (top-down method to tailor heat and mass transportparameters influencing reaction conditions) approach will be implemented towards tailored andsustainable jet fuel production.Following key skills will be gained during this project;1. Materials Synthesis (Copper based binary and ternary compounds): Electrochemical, Softchemistryroutes2. Materials characterisation: Electron Microscopy, AFM, Electrochemical techniques3. Analytical: GC (TCD, FID, BID), HPLC4. Reactor design: 3D printing, COMSOL simulationsThis multidisciplinary project unites leading Universities (Northumbria, Newcastle) and industry(Airbus) to conduct transformative research on SAF which will have a strong impact on societyand economy, particularly in the energy sector and associated materials and process industries.