Voelker et al.: Towards carbon-neutral and clean propulsion in heavy-duty transportation with hydroformylated Fischer–Tropsch fuels | 2024

Earlier this year, an article titled: "Towards carbon-neutral and clean propulsion in heavy-duty transportation with hydroformylated Fischer–Tropsch fuels“ was published in Nature Energy. For synthetic fuels used in heavy-duty transportation, main challenges are to achieve carbon neutrality while reducing air pollution and ensuring scalability and compatibility with existing infrastructure. Author Simon Voelker and colleagues conducted research on  hydroformylated Fischer-Tropsch (HyFiT) fuels composed of optimised alkane-alcohol blends which make them an optimal candidate to address these challenges.

In this study, they first designed the HyFiT fuel process to be flexible and closing the carbon cycle by using biomass or carbon dioxide as feedstock. The use of mature technologies ensure that it is scalable. Thereafter, tests are conducted to ensure that the HyFiT fuels comply with global fuel standards. Material compatibility is demonstrated for two standards sealing materials ensuring that it can be retrofitted onto today’s vehicle fleets. Testing of vehicles and HytFiT fuels have demonstrated that combustion induced particulate matter and nitrogen oxides are substantially reduced. In conclusion, it was found that the HyFiT fuels can complement the electrification for heavy-duty transport.

Read the full research article here

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