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

Development of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) from renewable resources is critical to help UK to
transition to a low carbon future. This project aims to produce sustainable and tailored jet fuels by
designing novel materials (photo-electrocatalysts) using renewable energy from industrially
sourced CO2. For the aviation industry, it is vital that the jet fuel should comprise of single and
tailored hydrocarbon instead of a mixture or blend of fuels to maximize the fuel efficiency which
is a grand challenge for scientific community. In this project, twostep process will be carried out
to obtain "tailored" jet fuel molecules. In the first step, CO2 will be converted to C1, C2 molecules
using 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, an
integrated 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 transport
parameters influencing reaction conditions) approach will be implemented towards tailored and
sustainable jet fuel production.
Following key skills will be gained during this project;
1. Materials Synthesis (Copper based binary and ternary compounds): Electrochemical, Softchemistry
routes
2. Materials characterisation: Electron Microscopy, AFM, Electrochemical techniques
3. Analytical: GC (TCD, FID, BID), HPLC
4. Reactor design: 3D printing, COMSOL simulations
This multidisciplinary project unites leading Universities (Northumbria, Newcastle) and industry
(Airbus) to conduct transformative research on SAF which will have a strong impact on society
and economy, particularly in the energy sector and associated materials and process industries.

ReNU's enhanced doctoral training programme delivered by three uniquely co-located major UK universities, Northumbria (UNN), Durham (DU) and Newcastle (NU), addresses clear skills needs in small-to-medium scale renewable energy (RE) and sustainable distributed energy (DE). It was co-designed by a range of companies and is supported by a balanced portfolio of 27 industrial partners (e.g. Airbus, Siemens and Shell) of which 12 are small or medium size enterprises (SMEs) (e.g. Enocell, Equiwatt and Power Roll). A further 9 partners include Government, not-for-profit and key network organisations. Together these provide a powerful, direct and integrated pathway to a range of impacts that span whole energy systems.

Industrial partners will interact with ReNU in three main ways: (1) through the Strategic Advisory Board; (2) by providing external input to individual doctoral candidate's projects; and (3) by setting Industrial Challenge Mini-Projects. These interactions will directly benefit companies by enabling them to focus ReNU's training programme on particular needs, allowing transfer of best practice in training and state-of-the-art techniques, solution approaches to R&D challenges and generation of intellectual property. Access to ReNU for new industrial partners that may wish to benefit from ReNU is enabled by the involvement of key networks and organisations such as the North East Automotive Alliance, the Engineering Employer Federation, and Knowledge Transfer Network (Energy).

In addition to industrial partners, ReNU includes Government organisations and not for-profit-organisations. These partners provide pathways to create impact via policy and public engagement. Similarly, significant academic impact will be achieved through collaborations with project partners in Singapore, Canada and China. This impact will result in research excellence disseminated through prestigious academic journals and international conferences to the benefit of the global community working on advanced energy materials.