Iranian Researchers Work on Producing Synthetic Fuel with Potential to Tackle Environmental Concerns

Mehdi Abbasi, a professor at the University of Tehran (UT) and a graduate from Stuttgart University in Germany in the field of combustion of air engines with an environmental approach said in an interview with local Iranian media that, “A part of the project we implemented at the University of Stuttgart was aimed at the development of alternative fuels; Alternative fuels are fuels that do not originate from crude oil or can be synthetically produced in a laboratory environment.”

He stated that the existing fuels used in the automotive and aerospace industry are of petroleum origin, explaining more that, “Although there are environmental problems with crude oil, predictions show that by 2050, hydrocarbon sources will still be prevailing. These fuels have full energy portfolio, however, the percentage of their utilization is decreasing.”

Emphasizing that the consumption of gas in the future will increase, Abbasi described the trend as a result ofthe green approaches adopted by countries. “Gas has less pollution than diesel and gasoline, so it is more favorable,” he added.

The UT professor further said that he and his teammates in their studies, “tried to produce fuels in the laboratory environment and combine them with each other to achieve clean fuel.”

“We used the ‘fuel engineering’ or ‘fuel design’ method to achieve this product,” he noted.

Stating that his studies began in Germany more than a decade ago and are still going through the testing phases, Abbasi noted, “In one of these tests, synthetic fuel produced was used in one of the jets.”

“The researchers of this project seek to put this synthetic fuel in the fuel basket in the future, especially in the aviation industry,” he continued to explain.

“At first, we took a series of complicated steps related to the modeling of hydrocarbons, in such a way that by using these modelings for each type of hydrocarbon, its combustion class, we can predict what materials and in what amount to combine with each other, and finally, what characteristics the mixture of materials will have?”

He said that the basic materials used in producing the synthetic fuel have all been produced in the laboratory environment, adding, “These materials, which have a chemical origin, are combined with each other in the laboratory environment based on a series of percentages after modeling. There are also fuels of biological origin, while these types of fuels are different from our fuel design; Because fuel design is done in such a way that first chemicals are combined with certain percentages and after production they are tested in a laboratory environment.”

At the end of the interview, the UT professor said that his research team are considering cooperation with other researchers in Russia and China, because those two countries have suitable laboratories to conduct the research and obtain the synthetic fuel.

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