Publication: Enhanced laboratory testing

Authors: Tegan Roberts (BP)
Kai Dannenbauer, Florian Huber (hte)

Hydrocarbon Engineering, September 2020, pp. 49-52

As one of the largest contributors to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, the transportation sector faces significant challenges in order to meet rising global demand while simultaneously achieving increasingly ambitious targets for sustainable and renewable sources of energy. Although passenger vehicle technology is transitioning to electrification, with many EU countries planning to ban fossil fuel powered cars by 2040, other modes of transportation such as aviation and marine vehicles are more challenging to decarbonise. One means of reducing the carbon footprint of these types of fuels is by using Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS): by this process a bio-derived synthesis gas can be converted into ‘synthetic’ long-chain hydrocarbons. In addition to the sustainability of the feedstock, these synthetic fuels also burn cleaner, due to the absence of contaminants such as sulfur and aromatics, and produce fewer particulates.