How a Swiss woman plans to decarbonise cars and aeroplanes

Instead of replacing internal combustion engines, the plan put forward by a Swiss chemical engineer is to run them on synthetic fuel.

Source and author: Simon Bradley & Michele Andina / swissinfo.ch 19 July 2026

In a laboratory at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa), Alessia Cesarini has been tinkering with a prototype for an e-fuel plant for two years now. Her aim? To develop a viable alternative to fossil fuels. «There are still many systems using internal combustion engines in operation. The idea is to offer a locally produced and less environmentally harmful solution,» Cesarini explains to Swissinfo, the information portal for the Swiss community abroad.

Link to the original report https://www.srf.ch/news/dialog/verbrennungsmotor