@article{Zhang2026, 
author = {Chenxi Zhang and Fei Wei},
title = {Full-composition jet fuel from CO2 hydrogenation: Interfacial reaction network engineering delivering on the electro-sustainable aviation fuel promise},
year = {2026},
journal = {Carbon Future},
keywords = {CO2 hydrogenation, sustainable aviation fuel, interfacial reaction network engineering},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/CF.2026.9200088},
doi = {10.26599/CF.2026.9200088},
abstract = {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.}
}