First successful processing of eMethanol for efuel production in Freiberg
Completing the value chain for synthetic gasoline
Representatives of TU Bergakademie Freiberg and CAC ENGINEERING GmbH have visited the world's first large-scale production plant for eMethanol in Kassø, Denmark, which is the joint venture of European Energy A/S and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. The plant of Kassø uses renewable energy to produce the feedstock, which was processed for the first time in the gasoline synthesis plant in Freiberg to produce renewable gasoline from biogenic CO₂ and green hydrogen.
The visit to Kassø marks an important milestone in the DeCarTrans (Demonstrating a Circular Carbon Economy in Transport along the Value Chain) joint project funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport (BMV). The end of last year saw the first production of around 23,000 liters of virtually climate-neutral gasoline from renewable electricity-based eMethanol from Denmark at the large-scale test plant in Freiberg. This development step enables the Saxons to operate the production plant more process-efficiently and at the same time reliably demonstrate that carbon recycling can achieve CO2 savings of up to 90 per cent compared to fossil gasoline.
"The first use of eMethanol in our large-scale test plant is an important milestone towards the preparation of a first industrial plant. We were able to demonstrate the technology of the entire process chain from captured biogenic CO2 and green hydrogen to high-performance synthetic gasoline. In addition to the 90 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions compared to conventional fuel, the increase in productivity at our plant thanks to the new Danish eMethanol is also worth highlighting," says Martin Gräbner, Professor of Energy Process Engineering at TU Bergakademie Freiberg, who is responsible for the operation of the plant.
"Our cooperation with Kassø shows that our METHAFUEL process is now based entirely on an industrially available, electricity-based carbon carrier. This is an important basis for German eFuel One, the first industrial production plant for synthetic gasoline, which we are currently planning in Lower Saxony," says Dr. Mario Kuschel, Head of R&D at CAC ENGINEERING.