Full-composition jet fuel from CO₂ hydrogenation: Interfacial reaction network engineering delivering on the electro-sustainable aviation fuel promise

Aviation needs a fuel that cannot yet be produced at scale. Direct CO₂ hydrogenation—engineered at the interface, within the reactor, and across operating boundaries rather than only at the active site—offers one of the shortest conditional pathways to producing full-composition, drop-in electro-sustainable aviation fuel. The central constraint is no longer only the Brønsted–Evans–Polanyi trade-off at an isolated site, but the architecture of a reaction network in which CO₂ activation, C–C coupling, aromatic formation, hydrogenation, and heat removal must operate cooperatively. Herein, we argue that interfacial reaction network engineering converts this constraint into a design rule: An oxide domain activates C–O bonds, a zeolite domain conducts C–C coupling and aromatization, and the two domains are coupled through controlled interfacial transfer of short-lived intermediates under a weak chemical-potential driving force. Recent kiloton-scale validation of this principle—demonstrating high CO₂ conversion, high C₈⁺ selectivity, low methane formation, and thousand-hour operation without oxidative regeneration—shows that the “impossible triangle” of catalytic activity, product selectivity, and long-term stability of the catalyst can be relaxed when catalyst nanostructure and fluidized-bed hydrodynamics are codesigned. The remaining challenge is contingent on techno-economic boundary conditions rather than conceptual: Whether cheap renewable electricity, inexpensive carbon feedstocks, million tonne–scale modules, and on-specification upgrading can converge fast enough to make full-composition CO₂-derived fuel competitive. We identify the operando descriptors, scale-dependent economics, and key engineering questions that must now be resolved.