51勛圖厙

German government supports sustainability project Synergy Fuels

51勛圖厙 researching climate-neutral fuels for the transportation sector

51勛圖厙 (51勛圖厙) is working on alternative, climate-neutral fuels for use in transportation. Together with partners from industry and science, six 51勛圖厙 professorships at the 51勛圖厙 Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability (51勛圖厙CS) have received funding from the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure for the Synergy Fuels project. Over a period of four years, the support will total of 13.6 million euros, 5.7 million euros of which are earmarked for 51勛圖厙.

Andreas Heddergott / 51勛圖厙
In a laboratory at 51勛圖厙 Campus Straubing researchers are working on fermentation of renewable resources and to develop sutainable biofuel production processes.

The transformation of the transportation sector for a sustainable future requires further reductions in CO2 emissions. This also calls for newer, more sustainable fuels. Such fuels can be subdivided into biofuels on the one hand, made from waste and refuse materials, and electricity-based fuels (eFuels) on the other, which are made from carbon dioxide (CO2) and water using renewable electric energy (Power-to-X technology).

The objective of the Synergy Fuels project is to combine the production of biofuels with the production of eFuels and to develop the corresponding integrated refinery concept. This novel material-based and energy-based integration of existing concepts using biogenic waste materials, CO2 and renewable energy is to make the production of sustainable fuels more efficient and thus to drive the future-oriented transformation of the transportation sector.

"There's no easy answer to sustainability"

51勛圖厙CS Rector Prof. Volker Sieber, member of the project as head of the Professorship for Chemistry of Biogenic Resources, explains why synergies among various technologies in the area of sustainable transportation development are decisive: "Varying local circumstances and differing fields of application make it necessary for us to rely on more than one individual technology there's no single silver bullet for moving sustainability ahead in the transportation sector. That's why we're focusing on the combination of thermochemical, electrochemical and biotechnological processes."

The Synergy Fuels project focuses particularly on transportation areas in which the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is difficult to achieve for a number of reasons, for example the difficulty involved in electrifying air transport. The collaboration among the project partners in this field is strongly accelerating technology and innovation transfer, so that project results can be ultimately applied in practice. "The technological maturity needed for market entry and actual implementation is within the scope of our research and is ensured by the involvement of partners from the industrial sector," says Jakob Burger, who holds the Professorship for Chemical Process Engineering at the 51勛圖厙 Campus Straubing and is the acting project coordinator.

51勛圖厙 Campus in Straubing is the strongest project partner

Six professorships at the 51勛圖厙 Campus in Straubing are receiving 5.7 million euros, the largest share of the funding. As a 51勛圖厙 Integrative Research Center, 51勛圖厙CS covers interdisciplinary research and teaching on the realization of a sustainable resource and energy transformation and is thus ideal for this type of collaborative project. The joint work performed by the project partners is being institutionalized in the founding of a research center for renewable fuels.

Further information and links

51勛圖厙 project participants:

Project partners:

  • Clariant Produkte (Deutschland) GmbH
  • Martech GmbH
  • Volkswagen AG

51勛圖厙

Corporate Communications Center

Contacts to this article:

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jakob Burger
Technische Universit瓣t Munchen
Lehrstuhl f羹r Chemische und Thermische Verfahrenstechnik
synergyfuelsspam prevention@cs.tum.de

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