Oxccu, Backed by Aramco, Targets Cheaper Hydrogen Aviation Fuel

It appears to be a shipping container at first glance, but if you look closely, you might find a precursor to more environmentally friendly flight in the future.

Years of research into the process of turning hydrogen and carbon dioxide into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) have culminated in the OX1 machine at Oxford Airport in the United Kingdom. The demonstrator can generate 1 kg of liquid fuel per day when it opens in September 2024. Next year, a bigger demonstration plant at Oxford Airport will follow, and then a commercial facility.

As the aviation industry strives toward net zero carbon emissions from operations by 2050, OXCCU, the Oxford University offshoot that created the technology, thinks it may help reduce emissions globally. In 2023, United Airlines, Eni, Trafigura, and other companies in the aviation and energy sectors joined Aramco Ventures, the company’s corporate venture arm, as investors in OXCCU.

Eco-Friendly Aviation Fuel

In order to turn collected CO2 and hydrogen straight into SAF in a single step, OXCCU is scaling up a unique catalytic method. The high cost of creating sustainable aviation fuels has been a significant obstacle for the industry, according to OXCCU CEO and co-founder Andrew Symes, who attended Oxford for his chemistry degree before working in venture capital and commodity trading.

He says that in order to produce sustainable aviation fuel, “we have simplified existing routes, which enables a lower cost plant and a lower operating cost process.”

Using a catalyst developed by fellow OXCCU co-founder Dr. Tiancun Xiao, the OXCCU approach is based on the century-old Fischer-Tropsch chemical process.

For the first time [in the lab], Tiancun’s 2020 paper, which garnered international media attention, essentially demonstrated that it was possible to convert CO2 and hydrogen into the jet fuel range hydrocarbons in a single step using a single catalyst, eliminating the need to produce intermediates like methanol or carbon monoxide. That’s actually where our fundamental technology is and where the cost savings are,” Symes adds.

OXCCU says that its method uses less hydrogen per quantity of jet fuel, which could lower capital and operating costs and result in a lower Power-to-Liquid (PtL) SAF. Other pathways, on the other hand, have higher capital costs because they require more steps and higher operating costs because of lower hydrogen efficiency.

The Net Zero Challenge

These are crucial factors to take into account when the aviation sector evaluates various carbon reduction technology and global air traffic keeps increasing. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), SAF will most likely be required to achieve about 65% of the total emissions reductions in order to meet the organization’s 2050 net-zero emissions target.

A number of factors, including as the speed at which governments throughout the world are enforcing laws requiring the adoption of more sustainable fuels and the voluntary adoption of the fuels by private jet operators, may determine the demand for the fuel.

“We may see voluntary demand, which could also be facilitated by the airlines and fuel suppliers, driven by corporates choosing to buy SAF to offset their Scope 3 emissions,” Symes predicts the formation of markets where SAF is required.

Since a large portion of the feedstock for sustainable aviation fuels now comes from sources like spent cooking oil and agricultural waste, attention is shifting to new technologies that could help meet the demand, which is predicted to rise dramatically.

According to Symes, the OXCCU prototype is a significant step forward in that process and has the potential to be expanded and integrated with industrial facilities to harness carbon dioxide emissions from point sources.

“The ultimate goal is to have a plant operating by the end of the decade using our technology,” he states. Aramco invests in several firms that foster innovation in the mobility and energy industries.