Our colleague, Marton Virt, has completed a one-month visit to the Catalysis Research and Technology Institute (IKFT) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) to discuss new possibilities for research collaboration in the field of advanced fuels. During the successful visit, two long-term collaboration opportunities were identified, based on IKFT’s advanced fuel synthesis technologies and our department’s decades of experience in engine testbed research. In our new researches, we will conduct engine tests with the special compounds produced by IKFT, and we also start to develop an AI-based predictive tool to provide useful guidance in designing these compounds. As one of the initial steps in the active collaboration, the institute conducted analyses of several fuel samples that we use in our current research.

In addition to exploring collaboration opportunities, experience sharing took place, during which the institute demonstrated its innovative oxymethylene ether production technologies, as well as the KIT Bioliq® plant, where a unique amount of synthetic gasoline can be produced among European universities. They also introduced the KIT engine testbed infrastructure, which can provide useful guidance for our own infrastructure developments.