Politecnico di Milano coordinates the JetZero project to develop defossilized fuels for the aviation of the future
The research project “Jet e-fuels a emissioni zero – JetZero” has been officially approved and funded by the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE). Coordinated by the Department of Energy of Politecnico di Milano and led by Prof. Carlo Giorgio Visconti, the project aims to pioneer innovative sustainable fuels for aviation.
With a budget of nearly 4 million euros under the NextGenerationEU program – Investment 3.5 “Hydrogen R&D” of Mission 2, Component 2 of Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) – JetZero focuses on developing and demonstrating, at both laboratory and pilot scale, a novel “one-pot” catalytic process to produce synthetic jet fuel (e-kerosene) from syngas. The syngas is obtained through high-temperature co-electrolysis of H₂O and CO₂ powered by renewable energy.
The project’s ultimate goal is to significantly contribute to the defossilization of the aviation sector through the use of e-fuels. Alongside biofuels, e-fuels are considered the only viable medium-term alternative to reduce aviation’s net CO₂ emissions by leveraging renewable energy. This perspective is also reflected in the European Commission’s ReFuelEU Aviation program, which already mandates the gradual increase of the share of sustainable fuels blended with fossil-based jet fuels distributed at European airports.
The JetZero consortium includes Politecnico di Milano – with its Departments of Energia, Chimica, Fisica and Meccanica – as well as the University of Calabria (Departments of Environmental Engineering and Physics), ENEA (Rome and Trisaia sites), Techfem , and Innovhub – Experimental Stations for Industry. Fondazione Politecnico di Milano provides administrative support for the project.
The project will run until June 30, 2026.
"JetZero represents an ambitious challenge in the field of low-carbon synthetic fuel production for the aviation sector. By integrating advanced technologies such as high-temperature co-electrolysis of water and carbon dioxide and the selective catalytic synthesis of kerosene from syngas, we aim to drastically reduce net carbon emissions in aviation — a sector well known as hard-to-abate — thus contributing to the transition toward sustainable transport of people and goods. I am grateful to MASE for investing in such a strategic area for the future of all of us"
