A pilot plant will capture Carbon Dioxide from thin air and turn it into new fuels and other hydrocarbons in the rare Soletair demo plant developed by the Technical Research Institute of Finland (VTT) and the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT). The plant will get its energy supply from the Lappeenranta solar power plant.
The project will initially produce 200 liters of new fuel and other hydrocarbons for research and evaluate the technical performance worthy of the pilot plant. The single location of the process plants from power generation to the production makes the uniqueness of the project. The process plants consist of a solar power plant, an equipment that sucks up and separates carbon dioxide from the air, a processing section that applies electrolysis to extract hydrogen, and a synthesis equipment to produce crude oil substitute from hydrocarbons.
The idea of this pilot project is to demonstrate how renewable energy supplemented by other chemical processes will provide the energy of the future. Output can be harnessed using the full cycle of their processes for an abundant supply of chemicals requisite in industries. LUT Professor Jero Ahola aims the end of fossil fuel consumption by 2050 but adds that hydrocarbons will still be a necessity for other products, Science Daily reported.
The research and implementation goal is to develop expertise in the field of the projects and separate plants involving the processes. This will also create business opportunities for the Finnish Government and its people. Data collection is also one important aspect of the pilot project most of all in the new fuel production, Renewable Energy Magazine has learned.
The VTT-LUT collaboration will target large-scale and industrial application in the future. The four processing plants will have their respective outputs distributed to where it is needed. The increase in production is doable by adding or expanding the operating capacities of the processing plants.
