As the world grapples with the environmental fallout from rising CO2 emissions, a prevailing strategy to mitigate the impact of air travel is through the utilization of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) produced from biogenic carbon sources such as fats, oils, greases, and biomass. However, with the demand for SAF expected to grow substantially in the coming decades, there is concern around the availability of these feedstocks. Recent studies have proposed that this potential gap in supply could be closed by utilizing CO2 as a complementary source of carbon combined with renewable electricity to drive the chemical transformation. In this study, a cross-cutting comparison of an emerging CO2-to-SAF pathway (Fig. 1) with existing SAF routes is performed, revealing the potential for CO2-derived SAF to be competitive in terms of costs and carbon intensity. In addition, we discuss potential technical, market, and systems integration risks for the scale-up and commercialization of this pathway.
