Hydrogen and Hydrocarbon Fuels from Abundant Resources and Solar Energy: Current Activities and Perspectives in DLR’s Institute of Future Fuels

Abstract Chemical energy carriers, centralized around Hydrogen products, will play an essential role in the energy system of the future. The advantages of comparable power density and reliability to fossil fuels, as well as their versatile applications, make them an important component of the energy transition. DLR is conducting research on technologies that ensure the efficient production of chemical energy carriers. De-carbonizing the energy system and of industry needs not only electricity from carbon-neutral sources but also green fuels. DLR’s Institute of Future Fuels steps in at that point by developing and investigating production methods for hydrogen and synthetic hydrocarbon fuels. Those are mostly based on the utilisation of concentrated sunlight but in additionally also on other renewable resources. The development goes all along the way of identifying and qualifying suitable functional materials, over integrating them in specific components allowing to introduce renewable energy into the process, towards the demonstration of a representative overall process along the chain from raw materials to the targeted fuel. Hydrogen plays a key role in this context, either as the fuels itself or as a core building block of synthetic hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals. The institute has a specific focus on thermochemical processes, in particular for water and CO 2 splitting, but also on air separation, thermochemical heat storage and upgrading of biomass and other hydrocarbons.