In the search for the most suitable sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), researchers at KU Leuven have come up with a new approach that combines two catalytic steps, as reported in ChemSusChem.

The main criterion for sustainable aviation fuels is that no modifications to aircraft engines or other infrastructure are required. This means that the chemical composition should be very similar to that of conventional kerosene: a mixture of aromatics, cycloalkanes, iso-alkanes and n-alkanes with chains between 8 and 18 carbon atoms - the C9-15 fraction being particularly important for aviation fuels.