Syngas to sustainable aviation fuel: Emerging catalysts and routes

As the aviation sector needs to decarbonize, sustainable aviation fuel produced from syngas offers a promising pathway to decrease CO₂ emissions. A wide range of carbon sources including biomass, CO₂, and municipal and plastic waste can be used as sustainable feedstock to produce syngas. This review provides a comprehensive overview of all known routes for converting syngas into jet-range hydrocarbons, with particular emphasis on emerging catalytic approaches at low technology readiness levels. These include direct syngas-to-jet fuel range hydrocarbons (HCs) and syngas-to-olefins-to-jet fuel range HCs as well as routes with methanol- or ethanol as intermediate. We assess recent advances in catalyst design, such as bifunctional, core–shell, and tandem systems, and discuss how these compare to established pathways like Fischer–Tropsch synthesis, which is already certified under ASTM D7566. By benchmarking emerging technologies against ASTM-certified and near-commercial processes, this review identifies key opportunities and technical challenges that must be addressed to accelerate the deployment of syngas-based SAF solutions.