How to make jet fuel from sunlight, air and water vapor

Jet fuel can now be siphoned from the air.

Or at least that’s the case in Móstoles, Spain, where researchers demonstrated that an outdoor system could produce kerosene, used as jet fuel, with three simple ingredients: sunlight, carbon dioxide and water vapor. Solar kerosene could replace petroleum-derived jet fuel in aviation and help stabilize greenhouse gas emissions, the researchers report in the July 20 Joule.

Burning solar-derived kerosene releases carbon dioxide, but only as much as is used to make it, says Aldo Steinfeld, an engineer at ETH Zurich. “That makes…