Topic 1 - Energy Supply

Energy research at KIT is looking for ways to convert fuels in a way that conserves resources and produces low emissions. The aim is to further improve the efficiency, environmental friendliness, reliability and lifetime of turbines and engines.

Fuels and combustibles of the future should release as little CO2 and other pollutants as possible. Thus, researchers at KIT are developing new types of synthetic fuels, partly from organic residues, and optimize them both for their respective use cases and in view of future emission guidelines. Another focus lies on synthetic substitutes for natural gas that are produced from renewable electricity and CO2 (Power-to-Gas, PtG), as demonstrated for example by the KIT-coordinated HELMETH research project with PtG efficiencies > 76%.

Further research projects associated with Topic 1 are concerned with innovative burner concepts and fuels, such as a sulphur-based storage process for solar-thermal power plants. The aim is the development of sulphur burners with a high energy density that can be used to generate electricity with gas turbines and/or steam turbines.

In order to fully exploit the advantages of new fuels, KIT researchers are working on adapted and coupled technical systems. One of the challenges is to achieve best possible combustion quality even with variable fuels. The work at KIT focuses on combustion engines with direct injection, gas turbines and innovative power plant processes as well as combined power-heat-systems. In the process, cooling technologies are also being developed, materials are investigated and physical and chemical processes are simulated.