Background and motivation
To achieve a climate-neutral Germany in 2050, a key factor is the provision of large amounts of renewable electricity and the development of low-emission solutions for mobility, industry, heat supply and energy storage. For this purpose, the offshore production of power-to-X products is being researched and advanced in the BMBF-funded hydrogen lead project "H2Mare".

The direct coupling of offshore wind turbines and suitable electrolysis processes with the power-to-X process steps for converting the green hydrogen produced, offer considerable potential for producing more easily transportable power-to-X products, such as liquefied methane, methanol, eFuels (power-to-liquid) and ammonia. The individual process steps must be directly coupled to a wind turbine, operate under offshore conditions, and be able to follow the dynamics of renewable electrical energy generation.
Against this background, the IMVT is investigating offshore integration and optimal system configuration for the power-to-liquid process chain (Fischer-Tropsch synthesis) and its dynamic behavior.

Task Overview

In this work, power-to-liquid (PtL) process chains for offshore production of eFuels using wind energy, electrolysis and direct air capture (DAC) will be created, optimized and their dynamic behavior investigated:

- Literature research on relevant production capacities for PtL and DAC plants.

- Modeling of DAC and electrolysis for offshore production of CO2 and green hydrogen

- Simulation of dynamic PtL process chains based on Energy Lab 2.0 and scale-up to higher production capacities for direct coupling with offshore wind farms

- Integration of energetic and material storage to balance fluctuations

- Investigation of the dynamic behavior, optimization and heat integration of the process chain

General conditions and qualification

- Students of chemical engineering / process engineering
- Knowledge in process modeling
- The thesis can be written in German as well as in English
- The results of the thesis will be presented within the institute seminar. Presentations at H2Mare project meetings are also possible.
- Start date: immediately
- Supervisor: Philipp Rentschler