Head of Future Technologies and Ecology of Aviation
Andreas.Sizmann[at]bauhaus-luftfahrt.net
+49 89 3074-84938
The European Green Deal aims at a 90% reduction in transport emissions to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The main leverage for aviation and waterborne transport is increasing the share of renewable fuels. SUN-to-LIQUID II addresses this challenge with an integrated solar-thermochemical pathway that has the potential to produce sustainable and cost-effective fuels at the scale of future demand directly from sunlight, water and CO2.
The primary objective is to achieve a record-high energy conversion of 15% - a 3-fold increase of the state of the art - by bringing novel concepts (TRL 2) and lab-scale developments (TRL 3) to the field (TRL 4-5). To this end, the aims are the optimization of a high-flux solar concentrating heliostat & tower system, the development and integration of novel 3D structured reactants and implementation of high-temperature heat recovery within the solar-thermochemical system. Detailed scale-up and constraint analyses and a commercial exploitation of the solar-thermochemical fuel technology strategy complement the key objectives for the way forward.
Through a 4-year 5.7-MEuros valued action, SUN-to-LIQUID II will demonstrate on-sun the viability of the integrated solar fuel pathway on a 50-kW scale, and will create a conceptual design of a next-generation commercial multi-megawatt-scale solar plant. Gathering three research organisations, one industry partner and two SMEs from five European countries, the highly complementary consortium builds on its unique expertise and unique state-of-the-art research facilities.
The expected outcomes are the above-mentioned major advances in research, development and demonstration of the SUN-to-LIQUID II technology, and with the system analyses providing the evidence for a pathway towards cost-effective and deep GHG emission reduction especially for aviation.
Bauhaus Luftfahrt coordinates the project and contributes with its scientific competence as a work package leader and research partner. The scientific analyses aim at the long-term future performance potentials and perspectives of the solar-thermochemical fuel production pathway. To this end, Bauhaus Luftfahrt performs techno-economic, environmental, and socio-economic system-level assessments of future commercial-scale solar fuel plants with the help of the consortium, and contributes to a parametric business case study.
