HAN University of Applied Sciences receives funding for FAME Changer reserarch project

Background

HAN University of Applied Sciences received funding from SIA to start a research project called FAME Changer. The two-year project aims to investigate the specific case of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME) which is considered a prime biofuel candidate for large industrial engines.

In the Netherlands, approximately 2,600,000 industrial engines are used in transport mainly in shipping and non-road mobile machinery (NRMM). These engines consume approximately 6.4 billion liters of diesel annually, about 20% of total diesel consumption in the Netherlands and are thus responsible for significant share of greenhouse gas emissions. One of the reasons for the delay of transition in this area is that the most important policy solution (electrification) is progressing slowly. In the short term, fuels such as FAME seem to be an important solution to reduce CO2 emissions.

However, FAME which is made from animal and vegetable oils and fats, faces a number of technical challenges  that this research aims to better understand in order to mitigate these. Platform is one of the project partners that is following this research. Speficially, the project aims to address two main research questions: 

• Which physical and chemical mechanisms cause harmful effects when using FAME (B100) in fuel and exhaust gas aftertreatment systems of industrial engines
• How can these harmful effects be mitigated by optimizing systems or fuel formulations?

Platform Renewable Fuels is one of the project partners that is following this research.