Researchers at the University of Sheffield and East China University of Science and Technology have published a solar-powered process to produce sustainable aviation fuel at US$4.62 per kilogram, cutting costs by 17% below the current best-available Direct Air Capture and CO2 Utilisation (DACCU) pathway, in a study published in Nature Communications on 30 March 2026.
The finding arrives at a pivotal moment for SAF supply planning. Used cooking oil (UCO), the industry’s primary feedstock today, cannot be produced at the volumes aviation decarbonization will require over the coming decade. A process that draws CO2 directly from the atmosphere and converts it using solar energy and hydrogen represents a truly renewable, feedstock-independent route to jet fuel at potentially industrial scale, addressing a structural vulnerability that no increase in UCO collection can solve.
“The process we have proposed has the potential to address key challenges in scaling up SAF. It’s a renewable energy-powered way of capturing CO2 from air and making SAF that is cost-effective and can be scaled to industrial levels. It also reduces electricity consumption in the production process and can fit within a circular economy.”
The core of the new system is the hydrogen-fluidised calciner, a reactor that concentrates sunlight through a field of mirrors to supply the thermal energy required for CO2 capture and conversion. This replaces the natural gas combustion used in conventional DACCU systems, which is the primary reason existing pathways carry a higher cost and a residual carbon liability. Hydrogen plays a dual role inside the calciner: it circulates carbon particles through the reactor and simultaneously serves as the synthesis feedstock for fuel production. Professor Meihong Wang, Professor of Energy Systems at the University of Sheffield and lead researcher on the study, described the design: “The innovation lies in a hydrogen-fluidised calciner. This is a specialised reactor that uses a field of mirrors to focus sunlight, eliminating the need for onsite fossil fuel combustion. By using hydrogen to circulate the carbon particles, the system also streamlines production as it serves as the medium to circulate the carbon particles while simultaneously providing the essential feedstock for fuel synthesis.”
The team modeled production costs at US$4.62/kg against US$5.60/kg for the closest existing DACCU pathway, a gap that compounds significantly at industrial volumes. The researchers identified five countries as viable commercial hub locations: the United States, Chile, Spain, South Africa, and China. Each was selected on the basis of high solar irradiance combined with low hydrogen and land costs, the two largest variable cost drivers in the process. The study also notes that the new approach reduces electricity consumption during production, a further efficiency gain over conventional DACCU configurations.
The UCO supply constraint is central to why alternative pathways attract sustained research attention. As SAF mandates expand across the European Union and United Kingdom, competition for UCO is accelerating, driving input prices higher and creating supply uncertainty for producers reliant on a single feedstock stream. Efforts to open additional production routes are already taking shape at other facilities; the OMV-backed multi-pathway SAF research facility at TU Leoben reflects the same strategic push to reduce dependency on any single biological input.
With the research now peer-reviewed and published in a high-impact journal, attention will turn to pilot-scale demonstration. The identification of specific commercial hub countries signals that the research team is already scoping real-world deployment conditions rather than treating the work as purely academic. If cost and performance projections hold at larger plant sizes, the solar DACCU process developed at the University of Sheffield could become a meaningful contributor to the long-haul SAF supply volumes aviation will need through the 2030s and beyond.
Source: University of Sheffield
