Institute of Catalysis Research and Technology (IKFT)
The Institute of Catalysis Research and Technology was founded 2011. Its mission is to bridge the gap between fundamental and applied research and the development of new technologies and products in the field of catalysis and process technology of catalyzed processes. The focus of our work is the sustainable utilization of alternative feedstocks and their conversion into energy carriers intermediates. This includes the development of new catalytic systems based on a fundamental understanding of processes on a molecular level. The institute receives basic funding from the Helmholtz Association's program-oriented funding, largely in the Energy research field in the program Materials and Technologies for the Energy Transition.
We congratulate Wen Yanjun on successfully passing his doctoral examination on 17 March at the KIT Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Process Engineering.
He completed his doctoral research in Klaus Raffelt’s research group on the topic ‘Optimisation and exploration of catalysts for the hydrodeoxygenation upgrading of bio-oil through experiments and DFT calculations’.
The 23rd International Conference on “Fuels of the Future 2026” took place in Berlin in January, attended by over 620 participants from the worlds of politics, business, academia and industry associations.
On February 25, Constantin Fuchs successfully defended his dissertation entitled “Synthesis of aromatic-free gasoline and kerosene by means of heterogeneously catalyzed (co-)oligomerization of methanol-based olefins.” The supervisors were Professors Jörg Sauer and Reinhard Rauch.
The DGMK event Hydrogen and Syngas - Platform for a sustainable future was jointly organized by the DGMK Divisions "Petrochemistry" and "Conversion of Carbon Carriers", the Division of Industrial Chemistry of the Società Chimica Italiana (SCI) and the ÖGEW Österreichische Gesellschaft für Energiewissenschaften.
The NFDI4Cat 2.0 kick off meeting took place on 22 and 23 October 2025 at the DECHEMA Haus in Frankfurt (Main). In this second funding period, TT-Prof. Dr. Moritz Wolf joins as a Participant and introduced his activities in data-driven research to the consortium. Together with the established principal investigator Prof. Dr. Olaf Deutschmann and Dr. Sofia Angeli IKFT will shape the future of catalysis-related data and research.
This talk deals with the integration of higher olefins in the methanol/DME-based production of sustainable aviation fuel. In a first part of the talk the Dimethyl ether to olefins process (DtO) is discussed, focusing on recent advances in *MRE-type zeolite catalysis. *MRE -type zeolites have the ability to shift product selectivity towards C3-C11 olefins, providing a promising feedstock for further upgrading into sustainable aviation fuels (C9-C16). The second part of the talk addresses the upgrading of the DtO-product to sustainable aviation fuels by subsequent oligomerization, hydrogenation and fractionation. A special focus is placed on the integration of higher olefins in the oligomerization process and their influence on the fuel properties.
Abstract:
Aviation contributes 2-3% of global CO2 emissions. Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) is one of the viable options for reduction of these emissions. The heterogeneously catalyzed co-oligomerization of lower olefins produced from methanol to SAF is already successfully demonstrated. In this study, the mixture of lower olefins like ethylene, propylene and 1-butylene are employed as a feedstock and are heterogeneously co-oligomerized over nickel on Amorphous Silica Alumina (ASA) support. The deactivation of catalyst is noticed after 10 h. Extensive investigations are carried out on spent catalyst to understand the mechanism for deactivation. The nickel catalyst tends to sinter, migrate to the support, leach and coke rapidly resulting in the deactivation even at low process temperatures employed like 200 °C.
Abstract:
A two-step RCF process is used. In the first step, lignin is dissolved by solvation in a flow reactor as well as in batch mode, thereby separating lignin from carbohydrates. In the second step, the lignin solution obtained in the first step is catalytically reduced in a batch reactor to gain data for the design of a continuous fixed-bed reactor. In the second step, the formic acid produced by the decomposition of hemicellulose and solvent is used as the hydrogen source.
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