Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) has invested in the Swiss-based Synhelion company in the ETH spinoff's latest financing round. The investment further underlines SWISS' firm commitment to sustainability and to help accelerate the process of bringing solar fuels to market.
Switzerland's biggest airline is putting a particular focus on such fuels in view of its strong scalability. Synhelion's technology also offers sizeable development potential and holds many strategic advantages over other technological approaches. To take one example, the Synhelion plant's inbuilt heat storage facility enables the plant to be operated 24/7 with no need to draw on further renewable energy from the existing electricity grid.
“Synhelion, SWISS and the Lufthansa Group have been collaborating very constructively on bringing solar fuels to market for the aviation sector for more than two years now,” explains SWISS CEO Dieter Vranckx. “And we are delighted that, with our new financial involvement, we can now make a further substantial contribution to helping Synhelion scale up and commercialise its innovative alternative fuel product.”
Synhelion will use the funds generated by this latest financing round to expand its solar fuel production plant to industrial dimensions and operate it accordingly. The company has also set itself an ambitious timetable for the scale-up concerned.
