Sustainably produced, electricity-based fuels are an essential component of an environmentally friendly mobility system. Especially in aviation, there will be no alternative to liquid fuels for most applications in the foreseeable future. A major challenge for the widespread use of electricity-based fuels (power-to-liquid, PtL) is the upscaling to industrial production and the optimised overall integration of the individual technology components required for production.
In order to address this issue, the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) commissioned a study on the “Conceptual and Technical Design of a Development Platform for PtL Fuels” (“Konzeptionelle und technische Ausgestaltung einer Entwicklungsplattform für PtL-Kraftstoffe”), which was supported by NOW.
As part of this study, a consortium consisting of the German Aerospace Center (DLR – Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt), the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) and John Brown Voest GmbH (JBV) developed a concept for the establishment and operation of a modular PtL development platform. The facility to be conceptualised is to comprise both a research and a demonstration module in order to test innovative technology components in an integrated manner along the entire PtL production process.