DeCarTrans project refers to the BMDV’s Directive on the Promotion of Measures for the Development of Renewable Fuels of May 2021 and aims to further develop an innovative process for the production of synthetic petrol from methanol provided from biogenic or renewable sources. With the measures applied for, the production process is to be optimised, which concerns both technological process steps of the synthesis and product preparation as well as the product composition. 

This is intended to increase the technological maturity in preparation for market entry from the current TRL 6-7 to 7-8. The project “DeCarTrans – Fuel Development” corresponds and complements the second project “DeCarTrans – Fuel Application” of the overall project “Demonstrating a Circular Carbon Economy in Transport along the Value Chain – DeCarTrans”, which was/is submitted by the above-mentioned network partners for the key topics of fuel application (characterisation, testing and marketing) to the BMWK as part of the funding programme “New Vehicle and System Technologies”. 

The consortium formed for both topics with a total of 38 partners covers all areas of the process chain – plant engineering and process technology, vehicle manufacturers, fuel producers and distributors as well as end users. For the project as a whole, it is essential to implement the project as soon as possible, as the results from the previous project C3-Mobility are to be further developed in the DeCarTrans project without interruption. 

The “Fuel Development” project can be realised as a separate, independent project, despite the close link to the “Fuel Application” project, with regard to the goal of developing synthetic fuels for an energy turnaround in transport. 

A utilisation of the results in the sense that the fuel produced in this project concept can be used on engine test benches and in fleet operation would nevertheless be given in this case insofar as activities are already emerging among car manufacturers and petrol station operators who can make use of a drop-in capable and standard-compliant petrol from our production. These efforts demonstrate even more clearly the efforts of industry and logistics to bring synthetic petrol onto the market through fleet compatibility. 

Thanks to the support of the state of Saxony, part of the preparatory work required for this on a laboratory scale could already be carried out in the 16-month DeCarTrans preliminary project. At the same time, it is essential for the achievement of the German government’s climate targets that the next step on the path to market introduction is taken as quickly as possible in order to enable the implementation of a commercial plant by 2030 (following DeCarTrans) as well as the nationwide market introduction in time.