Converting climate-damaging carbon dioxide back into kerosene, petrol and diesel and thus closing the CO₂ cycle: That is the idea behind Synhelion. The ETH spin-off uses the heat of the sun to produce synthetic fuels (synfuels) fromCO2 and water. In June 2024, Synhelion opened "DAWN" in the German city of Jülich: the world's first industrial plant for the production of solar fuels. Thanks to a collaboration with the Empa Laboratory for Advanced Ceramics, "DAWN" can produce renewable fuels around the clock - even at night.
To turnCO2 and water back into fuels, "DAWN" needs one thing above all: energy. A large field of mirrors focuses the sunlight onto a single point on the solar radiation receiver. This contains water vapor, which reaches a temperature of up to 1200 degrees Celsius thanks to the concentrated energy of the sun. The reactor is operated with this high-temperature process heat. Excess heat is stored in a chamber several cubic meters in size, filled with special bricks. These bricks - a joint development by Empa and Synhelion - serve as temporary storage for the enormous heat. Overnight, it is this "heat reservoir" that keeps the reactor running.
