Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT... Prof. Malte Jaensch of the Technical University of Munich and anchored in the L-VIII eMethanol car lead project.
Interview of 13.01.2023
You are subproject lead for scientific work at your institute in the L-VIII subproject. What has been achieved so far in this area within the Carbon2Chem® research project?
Malte Jaensch: For us, the Carbon2Chem® project is a valuable contribution to the energy transition because it brings to the fore the need to link transport to the other sectors. Sustainable energy sources such as methanol are a key component of sustainable mobility but they have attracted far too little attention in the past.
What have been the highlights?
Malte Jaensch: Being able to now move toward the practical implementation of a methanol-operated combustion engine which uses waste CO2 from metallurgical gases made us very happy. This fuel produces an amazingly low level of pollutants with a high degree of efficiency, so working on the engine test bench is always a highlight!
What were the biggest challenges?
Malte Jaensch: Methanol has the great advantage of having a high knock resistance which enables the engine to operate at optimum efficiency. The barely detectable formation of soot is also a plus. The main challenge is that mixture formation requires sufficient heat supply, which is a difficult task, especially during a cold start. We are currently investigating some promising solutions together with our project partners.
What are the next steps?
Malte Jaensch: We have two objectives. Firstly, we are supporting our partners in making the Obrist methanol engine ready for use in vehicles. Secondly, we want to better understand methanol combustion so that we can put even more advantages in terms of emissions and efficiency into practice. For this, we are using our optical access research engine on which we can also compare methanol with other e-fuels.