Synthetic Fuels

Dear Colleagues,

Synthetic fuels are both energy and material carriers that enable a higher flexibility in the management of natural resources. Synthetic fuels can be produced from fossil (e.g., coal) and renewable resources, such as biomass (e.g., phytomass and zoomass, municipal waste), direct solar radiation and intermittent renewable power sources (e.g., wind farm, solar farm) through power-to-gas and power-to-liquids applications. Overall, synthetic fuels are obtained through photochemical/photobiological, thermochemical, and electrochemical conversion processes.

The International Energy Agency recently reported a significant climb in producing synthetic fuels from fossil resources indicating gas-to-liquids (GTL) output to reach almost one million barrels per day by 2040. Similarly, coal-to-liquids (CTL) is expected to account for a similar production in next decades. Finally, coal-to-gas (CTG) output is expected to increase to over 50 billions of cubic meters by 2040, accounting for 14% of China’s total natural gas production.

The opportunity of producing synthetic fuels from intermittent renewable power sources as grid-scale energy storage is relevant as well. Power-to-gas and power-to-liquids installed capacity is expected to be about 400 GW in the EU at 2050 according to a recent estimate from the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH-JU).

The present Special Issue covers recent research and trends in synthetic fuels production, distribution and utilization. Especially, the Special Issue covers the analysis of promising energy pathways for fuel synthesis from both fossil and renewable resources. In addition, innovative reactor designs, application of novel catalysts, as well as new process concepts are of interest. Further studies for synthetic fuels distribution and utilization are also highly desirable.

Assoc. Prof. Pierluigi Leone
Dr. Andrea Lanzini
Prof. Massimo Santarelli
Guest Editors

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