Objective
It is a great challenge to upgrade decentralized CO2 point-sources to production sites for renewable fuels. These CO2 sources can be related for example to production of biogas in anaerobic digestion plants.
UP-TO-ME targets a ground-breaking change in decentralized Power-to-Methanol production for hard to electrify applications, like marine vessels. The potential of producing renewable methanol, only by utilizing the CO2 content of biogas in Europe is 128 Mt/a. UP-TO-ME concept is based on a hybrid process which combines the capture of CO2 with the synthesis to methanol in a fully autonomous, unmanned plant. The process comprises 3D-printed reactors and column packings designed using highly advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics. The fully automated, self-learning and self-optimizing control system allows production at fluctuating conditions by combining dynamical plant models and Artificial Intelligence. The aim of UP-TO-ME to provide self-optimizing control even for off-grid-operation is very challenging and, to our knowledge, has not yet been achieved anywhere for comparable plants. The ability of a remote plant to adapt itself to varying boundary conditions such as availability of renewable energies (e.g. from weather forecasts) or on the availability of CO2 from a fluctuating source, open unforeseen possibilities for distributed production.
Currently, so-called blue methanol originating from natural gas, is used in limited cases as a marine fuel. However, the quality requirements of a renewable marine methanol fuel, especially considering water content, organic and sulfur impurities originating from P2X production, are not known. UP-TO-ME will assess experimentally the suitability of the produced fuel on a marine type of engine and provide ranges for fuel specifications and max limits for impurities for this to become a sustainable marine fuel.
Fields of science
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesmeteorology
- engineering and technologyenvironmental biotechnologybioremediationbioreactors
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsfossil energynatural gas
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryalcohols
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringnaval engineeringsea vessels
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
02150 Espoo
Finland
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Participants (4)
76131 Karlsruhe
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46005 Valencia
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546 36 Thessaloniki
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76131 Karlsruhe
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
Partners (1)
KT18 5UJ Epsom
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.