Synhelion breaks ground on world's first solar fuel plant

Synhelion’s process involves harvesting concentrated solar power (CSP) using heliostats, then using the heat – in excess of 1500°C – to create syngas, which can in turn be used to create synthetic fuels such as kerosene (jet fuel) or petrol.

“When you burn a fuel, you basically have the production of heat and water and carbon dioxide,” Dr Gianluca Ambrosetti, co-founder and CEO of Synhelion, told The Engineer last year. “Basically, what we do is look at processes that reverse that, and the most straightforward way is to take CO2, water vapour and use heat to try and reverse that process.”

Spun out of ETH Zurich in 2016, Synhelion has since then been making strides towards the commercialisation of the process. According to the company, it recently passed the last major technological milestone for the industrial production of solar fuels, manufacturing solar syngas on an industrial scale. DAWN will now be the first industrial-scale plant to capitalise on the breakthrough.