BAC-TO-FUEL will contribute to the defossilisation of the transport sector by developing and demonstrating advanced renewable fuel production.

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2019 – 2021
3 000 000

Deepak Pant

+32 14 33 69 69
Contact

VITO will develop the electro-biocatalytic conversion of CO2/H2 into fuels using genetically modified bacteria from WUR and photocatalytic hydrogen generation system from TUB.

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Abstract

BAC-TO-FUEL will respond to the global challenge of finding new sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels by developing, integrating and validating a disruptive prototype system at TRL5 which is able to transform CO2/H2 into added-value products in a sustainable and cost-effective way which:

1) mimics the photosynthetic process of plants using novel inorganic photocatalysts which are capable of producing hydrogen in a renewable way from photocatalytic splitting of water in the presence of sunlight

2) uses enhanced bacterial media to convert CO2 and the renewable hydrogen into biofuels (i.e. ethanol and butanol both important fuels for transport) using a novel electro-biocatalytic cell which can handle fluctuations in hydrogen and power supply lending itself to coupling to renewable energy technologies

BAC-TO-FUEL is a multidisciplinary project which brings together leaders in the fields of materials chemistry, computational chemistry, chemical engineering, microbiology and bacterial engineering. BAC-TO-FUEL will validate a prototype system at TRL5 which is able to transform CO2/H2 into added-value products in a sustainable and cost effective way specifically for the European transport sector.