Inventions, innovations and new technologies – Solar thermochemical fuels

Transportation fuels are a major contributor to the global carbon emissions and must be tackled in order to achieve the goal of net zero carbon emissions. Although electric automobiles and other surface transportation are the focus of many governments, aviation fuels will continue to be a problem, unless they can be produced sustainably. High temperature thermochemical processes can be used to convert the atmospheric carbon dioxide and water to sustainable liquid aviation fuels using solar energy.

In this article we have briefly reviewed inventions, innovations, and commercialization prospects of solar thermochemical fuels. Also, we have highlighted the opportunities and prominent attempts for commercialization and identified the related challenges. This article reviews and analyzes recent progress and innovations in the materials and system developments. The review is followed by a list of notable recent patents and articles. However, the list is by no means exhaustive or complete and quite possibly some important patents and articles might be missing. However, the review and the lists support the objective of this section to draw attention to the topic of inventions, innovations and new technologies, which can be a major contributor to the global goal of net zero carbon emissions in the world.