Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers have developed a green alternative to crude oil

Researchers at the Blashner Center at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have developed a revolutionary process for converting carbon dioxide and hydrogen (produced by splitting water) into a green raw material that can be distilled into renewable liquid fuels (gasoline, jet fuel and diesel).

Finding an alternative to oil has become a vital need in the 21st century. Researchers from Ben-Gurion University in the Negev have developed a process to create a green alternative raw material for crude oil from the two most common substances on Earth - water and carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas that is harmful to the environment.

Prof. Moti Hershkowitz, Prof. Miron Landau, Dr. Veroxana Widrock and the research group of the Blashner Center for Industrial Catalysis and Process Development at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, developed a green raw material that can be turned, using existing technologies, into liquid fuels using the existing infrastructure. Compared to other alternative fuel sources, such as electric vehicles, which require additional infrastructure, this green raw material will simply replace oil as the raw material in the refineries.

Prof. Hershkowitz is the chairman of the Israel Cohen Chair of Chemical Engineering and the vice-president and dean of research and development at Ben-Gurion University. The process developed at the center is in the process of obtaining a patent "and we are ready to go," says Prof. Hershkowitz. According to him, the critical experiments on the subject were conducted a long time ago and transferring the process to an industrial scale should be quite simple.

Prof. Hershkowitz revealed his revolutionary breakthrough at the Bloomberg conference on fuel substitutes held last week in Tel Aviv. "It is an extraordinary challenge to convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen into a green raw material for fuels," claims Hershkowitz. "The technology is based on innovative catalysts and catalytic processes that have been specially 'tailored' for this purpose. The processes developed at Ben-Gurion University allow the direct use of available commercial technology. It is expected that a short-term application of the process will combine synthetic gas produced from various alternative and renewable sources with carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Since no technological barriers are anticipated, the new process should become a reality within five to ten years," he added.

Referring to the position of the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who made it clear that one of the national tasks of the State of Israel is the development of alternatives to oil, Hershkowitz emphasized that he believes "that as the separation of carbon dioxide from various sources, including air, and the decomposition of water to produce hydrogen become technologically and economically feasible, This process will become the dominant technology for producing liquid fuels."

Referring to other alternative fuels, Hershkowitz claims that his invention is a factor that changes the rules of the game. "The liquid fuels that have been used during the past decade are ethanol (alcohol), biodiesel and/or mixtures of these fuels with conventional fuels, and they will remain in use for the foreseeable future. However, these alternatives are far from ideal, and there is an urgent need for a 'game-changing' approach to produce liquid transportation fuels for direct use in engines through sustainable and environmentally acceptable technological processes (in terms of greenhouse gas emissions) from cheap, renewable and abundant materials," he says. .

The Blashner Center for Industrial Catalysis and Process Development has a proven track record of commercializing applications based on its basic research. The research center has developed a process for the production of aroma materials produced by "Negev Aroma" in Neot Hovav.

The Belashner Center, founded in 1995, has developed the infrastructure and expertise required to deal with a wide range of challenging issues related to basic and applied aspects of catalysts and catalytic processes. This goal was achieved thanks to massive funding of more than 14,000,000 US dollars raised from various sources, such as scientific foundations and industrial partners. The Center played a key role in the Center of Excellence established by the Israel Science Foundation, participated in three different programs of the European Community and is a partner in the I-CORE program for renewable fuels. The researchers at the Blashner Center have developed an innovative process for converting vegetable oils and algae oils into advanced green diesel and jet fuel, as well as an innovative process for producing sulfur-free diesel.

This project was partially supported by I-SAEF (the Israeli Strategic Alternative Energy Fund).