Description du projet
Une voie viable vers la production d’électrocarburants
Les électrocarburants à haute densité (e-carburants) produits à l’aide d’électricité générée par des sources d’énergie renouvelables, d’eau et du CO2 présent dans l’air sont indispensables pour décarboner le transport longue distance. Les composés légèrement oxygénés pourraient contribuer à surmonter les limites auxquelles les électrocarburants connus (tels que les hydrocarbures Fischer-Tropsch non oxygénés ou le méthanol fortement oxygéné) sont confrontés, mais il n’existe aucun moyen efficace de les produire. Le projet E-TANDEM, financé par l’UE, mettra au point un processus hybride pour convertir le CO2, l’eau et l’énergie renouvelable en e-carburants à plus forte teneur en oxygène qui fera appel à trois types de catalyse. Ce nouveau processus de production d’e-carburant fera l’objet d’une démonstration à l’échelle du banc d’essai et sera testé afin d’évaluer sa capacité à gérer les fluctuations des sources d’énergie.
Objectif
Carbon neutral, high-energy density e-fuels are crucial to de-fossilize long-haul transport. Mildly oxygenated compounds such as C5+ (higher) alcohols and their ether derivatives hold the promise to overcome limitations of known e-fuels, such as non-oxygenated Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbons or heavily oxygenated methanol and DME, but no process exists for their effective production. The project aims to develop a disruptive route wherein CO2, water and renewable power are converted to higher oxygenate e-fuels in a once-through hybrid process integrating three major catalysis branches: “electrocatalysis” is applied in a robust high-pressure CO2/H2O co-electrolysis step to produce e-syngas (H2/CO), which is converted in a single-reactor, slurry-phase process combining “solid thermocatalysis” for linear hydrocarbon synthesis and “molecular chemocatalysis” for in situ oxo-functionalization via reductive hydroformylation. In this process, integration of catalytic functionalities in tandem, alongside an engineered interfacing of high- and low-temperature conversion steps and energy unintensive membrane separation technologies, offer a blueprint for superior atom and energy efficiencies. The project will demonstrate the new e-fuel production process at bench-scale, and assess its capacity to cope with fluctuating energy inputs. Moreover, e-fuel formulation and life-cycle aspects are covered to fully realize the potential of the higher oxygenate e-fuel to distinctively unite excellent combustion properties (high cetane), exceptional reduction of tailpipe soot emissions, advantageous logistics as liquid at ambient conditions and compatibility with current-fleet fuel infrastructure and engine technologies, with emphasis on applications as diesel replacement in heavy-duty marine transport. An exploitation plan will be created together with international stakeholders, to consolidate EU’s capacity to export advanced e-fuel technologies to areas with vast green energy potential.
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HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinateur
28006 Madrid
Espagne