German minister visits Catalysis Institute

11 Jun 2024
GreenQUEST
11 Jun 2024

The Catalysis Institute at the University of Cape Town (UCT) recently hosted German minister of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, [BMBF]), Bettina Stark-Watzinger, and Western Cape premier, Alan Winde, who toured the institute and received updates on two large BMBF-funded green energy research projects under way at UCT. The visit took place on Monday, 27 March.

The two research and demonstration projects are Green-QUEST – which aims to develop a viable, sustainable green fuel product to supplement and eventually replace liquified petroleum gas – and Catalyst Research for Sustainable Kerosene (CARE-O-SENE), which aims to create sustainable aviation fuels.

“The Green-QUEST project seeks to fully explore the technical, social, and environmental aspects pertaining to the introduction of a new cooking fuel for low-income households in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Professor Jack Fletcher, the director of the UCT Catalysis Institute, which forms part of the Department of Chemical Engineering in UCT’s Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment.

“The fuel itself is a sustainable liquified fuel gas (green LFG) – essentially a synthetic alternative to conventional (fossil-derived) liquified petroleum gas (LPG). Yes, the stuff all gas stoves, braais and heaters run on in South Africa. The project is motivated by the fact that vast numbers of poor-income families still use coal, wood, biomass/waste for cooking fuel, often in under-ventilated dwellings with huge negative health impacts from inhalation of soot particles.”

Professor Fletcher added that the World Health Organization estimates that three to four million premature deaths occur annually as a result of exposure to these biomass fuels, alongside other negative effects, including deforestation and loss of productive time to wood/biomass collection.

“Several African countries, consequently, are seeking to move these communities to LPG which, while avoiding the problems of health, deforestation, and time loss, still remain a net emitter of fossil-fuel carbon dioxide. Green LFG aims to fossil LPG with all the same benefits but in an essentially carbon-neutral manner in keeping with global net-zero targets.”

CARE-O-SENE is a German–South African research project in which seven German and South African partners are working together on fuel catalysis research and technology development, with the goal of making large-scale production of green kerosene possible by 2025, thus decarbonising the aviation sector and making it sustainable over the long term.