BrenaRo

 

Fuel Production from Renewable Resources - BrenaRo

Due to the limited availability of fossil fuel reserves and steadily rising energy demands, it is necessary to ensure future energy supplies, particularly in the fuel sector. This can be achieved by developing alternative sources of energy and making them usable for industrial applications.

 

Renewable resources are are considered to have the potential to become new sources of energy. There are still many questions however regarding

• the possible competition with food for land,
• the suitability of these energy sources for the production of fuels, as well as
• the characteristics of newly developed fuels, which are highly relevant to the quality of the combustion process.

These problems are so closely interrelated that it is impossible to address them in isolation.  Solutions can only be found by way of a comprehensive approach involving expertise from key disciplines such as biology, chemistry, and engineering.

The development of fuels created from renewable resources presents a challenge for chemical- and biocatalysis, processing technology and systems engineering, combustion research, and engine technology. For this reason, there is a strong need for experts with interdisciplinary training who can take on this challenge and contribute to developing third-generation biogenic fuels.

The goal of the graduate program is to provide a comprehensive, interdisciplinary education and training which makes it possible for students to develop into highly qualified experts in the area of energy production from renewable resources

Research Infrastructure and Doctoral Training

As an interdisciplinary research and educational institution, the NRW REsearch School is to be incorporated into the existing research infrastructure at RWTH Aachen University.

In particular, there is to be a close relationship between this project and the Excellence Cluster Tailor-Made Fuels from Biomass as well as the Collaborative Research Centre Model-based Regulation of Homogenized Low-Temperature Combustion.

Through intensive collaboration between our PhD candidates and researchers from the above projects, we hope to create a synergy between the various individual but complementary areas of research. More specifically, the graduate school is to facilitate an interdisciplinary education for doctoral candidates in the fields of biology, chemistry, and engineering. The school provides an environment which deepens our students' general knowledge, especially through close collaboration with other graduate students working on the development of energy sources for the future.

The technological and scientific challenges presented by the production of energy from natural resources range from production, yield, solvation, and depolymerization of the plant material, to the transformation of these substances into biogenic fuels, and even to the efficient and low-pollution combustion of the fuel in newly-developed combustion engines.

Spokesperson

Spokesperson for the Research School is Professor Wolfgang Schröder, Chair of Fluid Mechanics and the Institute of Aerodynamics at RWTH Aachen University.