Short description of the project’s approach
DeCarTrans follows the results of Closed Carbon Cycle Mobility C3-Mobility
This project, completed in 2021, had produced 46 m3 of synthetic fuels from biomethanol in two test campaigns lasting several weeks using the methanol-to-gasoline (MtG) process and used for the most part by the project partners involved for fuel tests, engine tests and trials in passenger cars.
During the operation of the large-scale test plant, a considerable potential for optimising and increasing the efficiency of the synthesis process became apparent, as well as the need for research to stabilise the process, to develop it into a continuous operation and to further improve the product quality. This is the motivation behind the DeCarTrans – Fuel Development.
Key points in the plant research are, for example, the reduction of catalyst regeneration, the increase of process stability as well as the identification of process engineering approaches for optimised heat and by-product integration.
In addition, the quality of the synthetic petrol is to be improved with regard to its emission and combustion behaviour, for which the in-process product preparation (distillation) is to be redesigned. From the investigations within the preceding project related to the end application, further questions arose regarding detailed market introduction and application scenarios up to the further improvement of the engine efficiency and emission levels.
The resulting questions of fuel marketing and end use in the vehicle are to be dealt with in the corresponding project “Fuel Application” in order to be able to make well-founded overall statements about manufacturing paths and production locations, sales structures, market introduction and fuel standardisation against the background of existing and discussed legal framework conditions. To this end, the fuel quantities produced in the “Fuel Development” project are made available to the network partners involved in the corresponding “Fuel Application” project and the results obtained from them are evaluated in joint working groups.
The Fuel Development consortium proposed here can be carried out independently, i.e. without the corresponding “Fuel Application” project, if the partner project receives a negative decision. In this case, a large number of interested parties can be addressed for the application and testing as well as trial marketing and determination of customer acceptance of the petrol produced from biogenic or electricity-based methanol (including OEMs and companies from the mineral oil trade, also beyond the above-mentioned network partner group).
The further scientific application of the fuel produced in the project can thus be secured. The exchange of information (accompanying research) with the fuel users aims to obtain their experiences in application and marketing and thus to be able to make more precise statements on the holistic process evaluation and the strategy development for the market launch of the fuel.
