May 2, 2024

DAWN construction update: key components installed

Synelion’s first industrial-scale demonstration plant DAWN is currently in the construction and commissioning phase. The construction of plant DAWN is progressing steadily, and now the key components of our technology have been delivered and installed.

The groundbreaking of DAWN, our first industrial-scale demonstration plant, located in Jülich, Germany, took place in late 2022. With DAWN, we demonstrate the technology and its robustness at relevant scale. DAWN is a crucial step in our strategy to scale up our solar fuel technology.

The key components of our solar fuel technology have been delivered and installed inside the solar tower, ready to be commissioned.

These key components are proprietary innovations of Synhelion. At DAWN, our solar receiver produces solar process heat with concentrated solar radiation. In fact, Synhelion was the first company to sustainably generate process heat beyond 1’500°C. This heat can drive industrial processes such as fuel production and cement manufacturing. Our thermochemical reactor technology converts solar heat and feedstocks into syngas, the essential component for sustainable liquid fuel. The reactor can process a variety of feedstocks into carbon-neutral solar fuels: RED II certified biogenic methane and CO₂ of biowaste origin, recycled CO₂ from industrial processes, or CO₂ from Direct Air Capture. Our thermal energy storage retains the solar heat generated during the day to enable continuous round-the-clock plant operation and therefore fuel production. These components will now be coupled and commissioned.

“We’re pleased to announce that our key components have been installed in the solar tower of DAWN,” says Philipp Good, CTO of Synhelion. “We are now taking the next steps to commission the components to make the plant ready for the production of solar fuels.”

The fuels produced by DAWN will be used for various showcase projects across the transportation sector to highlight the importance of sustainable fuels in the transportation sector’s transition to net-zero. Future solar fuel plants, such as Synhelion’s commercial solar fuel plant in Spain, will exceed the size of DAWN and offer significantly higher production capacity.