Finnish researchers produce fuel from thin air

Biofuels Digest
In Finland, commercial vehicles operated by the City of Helsinki and bus services commissioned by HSL will fully switch to renewable fuels by 2020.
HSL, Stara, UPM, Neste, Teboil, St1, the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Employment, the Finnish Petroleum and Biofuels Association and the Technical Research Centre of Finland VTT are partners in that project, which is a signature element of the Helsinki region’s Smart & Clean project, which aims to achieve the most attractive zero-emission mobility in the world.
And the technical progress towards unlocking biofuels on a grand scale in Finland is keeping up with the switch-over timetable from petroleum.
The VTT project
In the latest news, the Soletair process, developed by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Lappeenranta University of Technology, is using carbon dioxide and solar power to produce renewable fuels and chemicals and has reached an end-to-end small demonstration scale.
The new power-to-liquid plant was initially launched at the BIORUUKKI Piloting Centre of VTT, and now has moved to the campus of LUT. The SOLETAIR project will be completed in mid-2018. It is funded with €1M by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation.
The aim of the project is to demonstrate technical performance and produce 200 litres of fuels and other hydrocarbons for R&D.
The pilot plant is coupled to LUT’s solar power plant in Lappeenranta, and demonstrates the entire process chain, from solar power generation to hydrocarbon production.
You can read more here.