In Japan, Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation (Toshiba ESS), Toshiba Corporation, Toyo Engineering Corporation (TOYO), Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd, All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd (ANA), and Japan CCS Co., Ltd have announced that they have reached an agreement to begin reviewing carbon dioxide (CO2) recycling into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) business models using sources such as exhaust gases and Power-to-Chemicals (P2C) conversion processes.
Various eco-friendly innovations will be needed to achieve the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction targets indicated in Japan’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for the Paris Agreement. These include separation, storing, and recycling CO2, (CCS/CCU), making renewable energies into mainstream power sources, expanding the use of hydrogen, and decarbonization of fuels.
In the aviation industry, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has also defined CO2 emissions reduction targets in its Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), and strongly urges stable production and supply of SAF since using it in aviation is one effective means of meeting these targets.
According to the companies, with its high CO2 emissions reduction capability, the P2C process using technologies developed by Toshiba Corporate Research & Development Center which CO2 to carbon monoxide (CO) through electrolysis, offers great potential as a next-generation technology for producing SAF out of CO2.
These reviews will identify challenges and future SAF business models leveraging each company’s expertise, technologies, and plant facilities for supply chains that will deliver SAF.
Specifically, the companies will review the possibilities for streamlined SAF supply chains from upstream to downstream, using renewable energy and hydrogen to produce SAF out of CO2 which is separated and captured from sources such as exhaust gases of industrial emitters, and subsequently supply this fuel for flights in aviation.
