(Pasadena / USA) – The Californian Heliogen, Inc. wants to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) together with Dimensional Energy. Heliogen’s “HelioHeat” technology will be used.
The company is active in the concentrated solar power (CSP) business. Depending on the technology, collectors installed over large areas in solar thermal power plants, such as heliostats or parabolic troughs, transfer the incident solar radiation to a heat exchanger (receiver), which heats a heat transfer medium. Depending on the concentration level, design and location of the system, temperatures of 500 to more than 1.000 degrees Celsius can be reached. This allows steam, electricity and heat to be generated and stored in a power plant.
Initial production of 159 liters of SAF per day
Under the agreement with Dimension Energy, a demonstration plant will be built in Lancaster, California, with an output of one barrel (159 liters) per day. It is assumed that this is “a first step towards developing a pipeline for approximately three million barrels (477 million liters) of fuel over the next ten years”. In June, Dimensional Energy reached an agreement with United Airlines to supply the airline with 20 million gallons (300 million liters) of SAF over 1.135 years.
Heliogen recently completed the installation of fourth generation heliostats at the Lancaster demonstration facility. “These new heliostats are designed to be manufactured, installed and maintained more efficiently without sacrificing performance or reliability,” says the second quarter 2022 annual report.
Already in November 2021, as part of an agreement with the Californian Bloom Energy Corp. green hydrogen produced. In combination with Bloom Energy's high-temperature solid oxide electrolyzer, the energy source can be produced 45 percent more efficiently than with low-temperature polymer electrolyte membranes (PEM) and alkaline electrolyzers, it said.
In December 2021, Heliogen announced its merger with Athena Technology Acquisition Corp. The company has since been listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the name Heliogen Inc.
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Heliogen has been operating its demonstration plant in Lancaster since 2019. © Heliogen Inc.
