Fuel for the future

CESTAP (Competence cEntre in Sustainable Turbine fuels for Aviation and Power) is a newly established centre of competence including academic and industrial partners promoting production and use of sustainable fuels for stationary gas turbines and aviation jet engines. Academic and institute partners include Lund University as the coordinating partner, Luleå University and the Research Institute of Sweden (RISE). CESTAP is funded by the Swedish Energy Agency, with contributions from about 28 industrial partners and the mentioned academic partners.

Sustainable future energy use rely on a shift away from fossil fuels, which in some sectors can be done with new non-combustion technologies like batteries or fuel-cells. Still, in some sectors like aviation, maritime transport, and peak-load and back-up power generation, combustion will be difficult to replace. These sectors rely relatively heavy on continuous combustion engines like gas turbines and jet engines, and they together currently contribute with close to 10% of the global anthropogenic CO2 release.

To meet the needs of aviation and power production industries, the aim of the competence centre is to develop knowledge and technologies to produces efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective turbine fuels that ultimately can be used as true mono-fuels – completely replacing fossil fuels.

The most efficient use of resources requires a focus on sustainable turbine fuels, that can be used as mono-fuels. Compared to the present efforts spent on drop-in fuels this will be a comparatively large, but necessary, undertaking. To achieve success the development must include the full range of activities from feedstock characterization and chemical conversion process development, via fuel development and production, to engine modifications to facilitate the use of fuels with wider specifications. In this respect it is important to have a holistic techno-economic framework to evaluate concepts against.