The sun is shining for Pilatus and Synhelion
September 30, 2024
Solar fuel producer Synhelion has signed a five-year offtake agreement with Pilatus Aircraft, which will receive 200 tons of fuel a year from the cleantech spin-out; making it the first aircraft manufacturer in the world to use ‘solar fuel’.
The Swiss aircraft manufacturer will also become a shareholder in Synhelion, with Pilatus CEO Markus Bucher commenting: “We are convinced of the value of solar fuel technology – these fuels are the best way to defossilize air travel as quickly as possible”. Pilatus hopes to use Synhelion’s fuel for its own aircraft fleet before subsequently making it available to its customers.
“Pilatus aircraft are already certified to use SAF, which is currently produced mainly from biomass or waste products. Recent calculations indicate, however, that this type of fuel will never be available in sufficient quantities, now or in the future,” explained Pilatus – reinforcing an industry-wide acknowledgement as to the current volume limitations of HEFA-produced biofuels.
Established in 2016 as a spin-off from ETH Zurich, Synhelion uses solar energy (harnessed using a field of mirrors) to produce syngas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which is then converted into a variety of fuels. Its first industrial-scale demonstration plant (named DAWN) was inaugurated in 2024 in Jülich, Germany, with the facility celebrating having “successfully and continuously produced synthetic crude oil, also known as syncrude,” earlier this month.
The construction of Synhelion’s first commercial plant (located in Spain) is expected to commence in 2025, with the facility to produce around 1,000 tons of fuel a year. “Over the next few years, we will focus fully on scaling our fuels worldwide. Together, we aim to roll our sustainable solar fuels to the entire Pilatus customer fleet within the next ten years,” concluded Synhelion Co-CEO and co-founder Phillip Furler.
