ITQ UPV-CSIC) researchers coordinate the Horizon Europe project E-TANDEM
ITQ UPV-CSIC) researchers coordinate the Horizon Europe project E-TANDEM which aims to demonstrate innovative e-fuel formulations and production concepts to de-fossilize the heavy-duty and marine transport sectors.
ITQ UPV-CSIC) coordinates the E-TANDEM EU R&D effort on synthetic fuels production.
ITQ UPV-CSIC) researchers, in cooperation with other academic institutions, The Max Planck Society (Germany), Technical University of Denmark (Denmark), University of Zagreb (Croatia), University of Cape Town (South Africa), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia), as well as specialized technology centers and companies OWI Science for Fuels GmbH (Germany), Tech4Fuels GmbH (Germany), Uniresearch BV (The Netherlands), AVL LIST GmbH (Austria), and Goodfuels BV (The Netherlands), take part in the Horizon Europe research and innovation action E-TANDEM.
The EU target for 2050 to achieve a net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions economy is crucial to cease global warming and its consequences on climate, and transport is a key sector to defossilize. While electrification is the blueprint for passenger vehicles, the de-fossilization of other hard-to-abate transport sectors such as heavy-duty long-haul ground, shipping and aviation transport relies on the availability of higher-energy-density and carbon-neutral fuels. Mid- and long-chain (C5+) oxygenated hydrocarbon compounds could prove a highly promising alternative, due to their high energy density, capacity to reduce tailpipe soot emissions, their advantageous logistics and their compatibility with current-fleet infrastructures (unlike lighter oxygenate compounds such as methanol or DME). These features could enable their swifter application “drop-in”, replacing fossil diesel fuels already in the current fleet of heavy-duty trucks and ships, without imposing modifications or engine redesigns. However, at present there are no efficient production concepts for such higher oxygenate e-fuels directly from renewable, carbon neutral resources.
The E-TANDEM R&D effort brings together 11 partners from 8 countries in the EU and overseas to unlock an efficient and direct production of a new higher-oxygenate diesel-like e-fuel (HOEF). According to the project’s vision, said oxygenated fuel is directly produced from CO2 as the sole carbon source and renewable power as the sole energy input, in a once-through catalytic process which integrates three major catalysis branches: electrocatalysis, heterogeneous catalysis and molecular catalysis.
“The new e-fuel formulation and the innovative production concept builds on recent lab-scale discoveries and Intellectual Property Rights generated by our research team in cooperation with project partners at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (PD. Vorholt, Prof. Leitner), in Germany. It relies on our ability to engineer different families of catalyst materials, which have traditionally been regarded as mutually excluding, to now cooperate in “tandem”. It is only through this catalyst cooperation which we are now in the position to achieve the conversion of renewable carbon sources to a set of oxygenated fuel compounds with efficiencies which had long remained an intractable challenge for scientists” indicates Gonzalo Prieto, head of the CSIC research group Catalysis engineering and small molecule valorization at ITQ, and coordinator of this international R&D effort. “Through its Green Deal program, the EU has firmly indicated the way to lead the energy transition which we face globally. It is through collaborative, international, and multidisciplinary R&D efforts like E-TANDEM which we, researchers, can train the next generation of young professionals and test those disruptive concepts which are deemed to make the transition happen in the coming years.”
Photo: Group picture taken at the recent General Assembly meeting of the E-TANDEM research team at the premises of ITQ (UPV-CSIC) in Valencia.
More information on the project as well as updates on developments and events at the project’s website: https://www.e-tandem.eu/. Follow also the project’s profile in LinkedIn for regular updates on technical developments and job opportunities.
Contact person: Dr. Gonzalo Prieto (prieto@itq.upv.es).
