FAQ

Below you will find answers to the questions we are most frequently asked by our community.

  • What types of solar fuels can you produce?

    We can produce any type of solar fuel: kerosene, gasoline, diesel, methanol, hydrogen, synthetic crude oil, and many more. This is possible because we produce hydrocarbon chains – and simply put, fuels are nothing else but hydrocarbon chains of different lengths.

  • Is it really possible to reverse combustion?

    Yes, it is. When conventional fuels are burnt with oxygen, they release heat, CO2, and water vapor. Synhelion’s technology reverses this process. With the help of solar heat, we recombine water vapor and CO2 into hydrocarbon fuels.

  • How much will your solar fuels cost?

    We target a production cost below EUR 1 per liter within the next ten years. Our goal is to reach production costs competitive with other sustainable fuel technologies.

  • Can your technology help to solve the climate crisis?

    The transportation industry accounts for approximately 25 percent – or 8 billion tons – of manmade CO2 emissions per year. CO2 is the principal greenhouse gas contributing to global warming. Replacing fossil fuels with solar fuels is therefore one of the much-needed solutions to fight climate change. However, Synhelion believes that to combat climate change and its related problems, it is important that many different, new technologies and innovations come together.

  • Is solar fuel technology scalable to cover global demand?

    Yes, because solar fuels are produced from abundant resources and the solar fields are installed on non-arable land. An independent study assessing the geographical potential concludes that solar fuels could cover 50 times the current global jet fuel demand.

  • When will this technology be ready to go on the market?

    We successfully built DAWN, our first industrial solar fuel plant in Jülich, Germany. Industrial solar fuel production at plant DAWN started in 2024. RISE, Synhelion’s first commercial production plant will be located in Spain and is scheduled to produce solar fuels from 2027. By 2033, we plan to ramp up production capacity to produce 1 million tons of solar fuel per year. By 2040, we aim to ramp up fuel production to cover half of European SAF demand.

  • What markets do you focus on?

    Synhelion’s mission is to support the defossilization of the transportation sector, especially those sectors that are difficult to electrify, such as aviation and shipping.

    In road transportation, electrification plays a key role in reducing CO2 emissions. While electromobility can be rolled out quickly in some regions of the world, such as Europe, it will take much longer in other regions to significantly reduce the number of vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICE). Studies show that there will be many remaining ICE vehicles around the world that will also need to be powered sustainably to meet net-zero emission targets by 2050. As a complementary solution to road electrification, Synhelion’s solar fuels can help achieve these targets.