Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports CARE-O-SENE project until end of 2026

 

Hamburg/Berlin, 12 November 2024 – The German-South African CARE-O-SENE consortium, which is developing efficient catalysts for the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) on a Power-to-Liquid (PtL) basis, has received an extension of its funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) until the end of 2026.

Dr Dirk Schär, co-project manager and Lead Technical Sales Catalyst at Sasol, explains: 'Thanks to the extension from the BMBF, we can intensify our research into regeneration of catalysts. This is an important step for the long-term economic viability and sustainability of the PtL process.’

Research focus: long-lasting catalysts, integrated demonstration and new technologies

In the new CARE-O-SENE project phase, the team focuses on further optimising developed Fischer-Tropsch (FT) catalysts and increasing their lifespan. This means that the catalysts will need to be replaced less often, the materials they contain can be used more effectively and the FT process will become more sustainable and economical.

Although catalysts are not consumed by definition, in practice they tend to degrade and thus lose activity over time and become less effective. The CARE-O-SENE project is therefore working intensively to improve the ways these catalysts can be restored, increasing their lifespan and, hence, materials circularity. The project team has already reached the most important milestone: the development of a efficient catalyst with a kerosene yield of over 80 per cent.

The recently developed FT catalyst will also be used in a new integrated system that has been developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS) which will be able to utilise renewable electricity and sustainable feedstocks into FT synthetic crude product that can be upgraded to SAF. This will not only allow for the demonstration of the entire value chain, but also studies into the impacts of varying feedstock and the fluctuation in renewable power availability on the process.

Another focus of the current project phase is further research into thin-film catalysts. ‘This technology will enable a new generation of Fischer-Tropsch reactors and thus further improve the flexibility of sustainable aviation fuel production,’ explains Dr. Tobias Sontheimer, co-leader of the project and Head of the Strategy Department for Energy and Information at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB).