The actual news here is that a research group has developed a new greener way to generate synthesis gas (the standard way is to inject water or steam into a chamber of burning coal).
Once you have the synthesis gas, there are existing methods to manufacture a wide range of chemical products. Jet fuel being just one of them.
Gas to liquid fuel is quite possible. But if it could be done economically, everything that generates excess methane would be converting it to liquid fuels. Many approaches have been tried.[1]
> One of the world’s leading oil and gas producers, Norway, has maintained extremely low methane release rates for generations. It combines tough regulatory standards with a hefty carbon tax explicitly applied to methane released at the point of production. The World Bank has championed the Norway model for decades, advising governments around the world to include released methane in severance tax or royalty regimes in order to reduce waste, deter both greenhouse and air-quality emissions, and capture natural resource value for citizens.
> We found that Norway has no rivals in America. Emerging research suggests similar findings for Canada and Mexico, although the Australian state of Queensland includes flared and vented methane in its royalty system. In fact, many American states responded to growing methane waste concerns decades ago not by deterring emissions but by sheltering producing firms from taxation. Surgical amendments to energy tax laws placed methane off-limits from leakage fees. Those historic protections remain largely operational in the shale era, providing either explicit statutory exemption or administrative review processes that empower officials to routinely waive taxes.
Yes, the linked paper describes it in detail. They also avoid going through an electrolysis-of-water step to generate the H2, it all happens in situ (from the linked paper). The use of the ceria catalyst to generate the CO from CO2 has been known for a while but this looks like a notable advance:
> "An additional advantage of the solar redox cycle compared with other solar approaches is its ability to co-split H2O and CO2 simultaneously or separately and therefore control the quality (both purity and stoichiometry) of the syngas in situ, consequently obtaining a tailored mixture of H2 and CO suitable for FT synthesis."
> "This direct approach eliminates the energy penalty associated with additional refinement steps for adjusting the syngas mixture. In contrast, the electrolytic pathway (also called “power-to-X”) requires the production of substantial excess H2 by water electrolysis using solar electricity... "
Once you have the synthesis gas, there are existing methods to manufacture a wide range of chemical products. Jet fuel being just one of them.