Renewable Electricity-based, cyclic and economic production of Fuel

The collaborative project EcoFuel addresses the Topic “Development of next generation renewable fuel technologies from CO2 and renewable energy (Power and Energy to Renewable Fuels)” under the call Building a low-carbon, climate resilient future: Secure, clean and efficient energy.

EcoFuel develops and demonstrates a novel thorough process chain that significantly improves the energy efficiency for production of synthetic fuel out of CO2 and water using renewable energy.

The process chain comprises a) the supply of CO2 from the atmosphere via a novel direct air capture approach, b) direct electro-catalytic reduction of CO2 to C2/C3 alkenes at close to ambient temperatures, and c) thermo-catalytic liquefaction of alkenes, upgrading and fractionation into transport fuels.

The direct electro-catalytic CO2 reduction to hydrocarbons offers greatly enhanced efficiency potentials compared to Power-to-X technologies downstream of water electrolysis and at the same time, reduces process pathway steps. Process performance will be validated by in-depth impact assessment.

The EcoFuel approach will bring together chemists, physicists, engineers and dissemination and exploitation experts from 4 universities/research institutions, 2 SMEs and 3 industries, innovatively joining their key technologies to develop and exploit a novel complete process chain, based on the power of electrochemistry to deliver truly green (CO2 neutral) fuels with an unprecedented overall energy efficiency.

Within 36 months project duration, the EcoFuel technology will undergo a thorough material and component R&D programme and together with its significant industry involvement this project will be set on unique path toward new technology developments up to TRL 4 that will have lasting impact on the European renewable energy system.