Synthetic fuels will be of paramount importance in any future energy mix, providing a ready-to-go, low-emissions substitute for the fossil fuels currently used in aircraft and heavy transport. The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has been working on Power-to-Liquid (P2L) technologies at its Energy Lab 2.0 for some time. And now, together with a KIT spin-off Ineratec GmbH, it is developing processes for industrial scale-up.

A new, modular P2L plant at the KIT’s north campus has been built by the company and housed in a container that will serve as a prototype for series production. "This is the last expansion step on the way to industrial use," says Professor Roland Dittmeyer from KIT's Institute of Microprocess Engineering in a press release. "Plants of this design will contribute worldwide to making the transport sector and the chemical industry more sustainable with e-fuels as well as e-chemicals."

The plant will produce SynCrude, which is made from carbon dioxide (from air) and renewable hydrogen (via electrolysis), and can be further processed into synthetic paraffin, diesel and petrol. Using the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process, the long-chain hydrocarbons are synthesised from a syn-gas mix which consists mainly of carbon monoxide (CO) and H2. The SynCrude is produced in the other reactor upstream of the FT synthesis by a reverse water gas shift reaction (RWGS). The two reactor stages have been coupled for the first time and streamlined for industrial roll-out.

It is estimated that one plant will be able to produce between 200 to 300 litres of fuel per day from 2022. The demonstration of Ineratec's highly-efficient RWGS reactor technology is the final stage of development in a university environment. The company has been funded with EUR 2.5 million by the EU to bring the Power-to-X technology to market.