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%0 Thesis
%A Völker, Simon
%T Multi-scale life cycle design of synthetic fuels for sustainable mobility; 1. Auflage
%V 55
%I RWTH Aachen University
%V Dissertation
%C Aachen
%M RWTH-2025-05015
%@ 978-3-95886-544-0
%B Aachener Beiträge zur Technischen Thermodynamik
%P 1 Online-Ressource : Illustrationen
%D 2025
%Z Druckausgabe: 2025. - Auch veröffentlicht auf dem Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University
%Z Dissertation, RWTH Aachen University, 2024
%X Global transport is among the main emitters of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, requiring a paradigm shift away from burning fossil fuels towards integrating renewable energy. While renewable energy integration via direct electrification is most sensible, some transport subsectors are hard to electrify directly: aviation, shipping, and long-haul heavy-duty trucks. For these subsectors, renewable synthetic fuels pose promising complements for direct electrification. However, the environmental benefits of synthetic fuels are not a given and require thorough validation. Therefore, this thesis guides the life cycle assessment and design of synthetic fuels by addressing major research questions in the screening, filtering, and distribution of synthetic fuels. For synthetic fuel screening, we identify those key environmental objectives that cover the major trade-offs of integrated process and fuel design. Our findings suggest that the objectives land use, resource use of minerals and metals, and production cost are sufficient to design spark-ignition engine fuels holistically but with manageable computational cost. Integrated process and fuel design with these objectives reveals that bio-hybrid fuels can balance the burden-shifting of pure bio- and e-fuels. The group of synthetic fuels obtained from screening has to be further narrowed by filtering out only those for more detailed analyses that address the four key challenges of current synthetic fuels. Our study on hydroformylated Fischer-Tropsch (HyFiT) fuels demonstrates that HyFiT-fuels can fulfill these key challenges simultaneously: they (1) are scalable by using mature technologies, (2) are compatible with fuel standards and current engine technology, (3) reduce urban air pollutants, and (4) enable the transition to net-zero GHG emissions. In a fleet, the filtered out synthetic fuels could be distributed either as pure fuels to few or as blends with fossil fuel to all vehicles. Our fleet analysis shows that the environmentally optimal distribution depends on how combustion emissions develop with increasing blending ratios. For polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers of chain length three to five (OME3-5), distribution as a blend is optimal since increasing blending ratios of OME3-5 in diesel decrease combustion emissions disproportionately strong.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)3 ; PUB:(DE-HGF)11
%9 BookDissertation / PhD Thesis
%R 10.18154/RWTH-2025-05015
%U https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/1012484