German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Institute of Future Fuels

The Institute of Future Fuels contributes to making renewable resources available to replace fossil resources. We develop solutions for how hydrogen and fuels can be produced cost-effectively on an industrial scale from the raw materials water, CO₂ and nitrogen using renewable energies.

Topic

CO₂-neutral fuels

Der solare Simulator Synlight am DLR-Standort Jülich bestrahlt eine der drei Versuchskammern.

Topic

Hydrogen as energy carrier

Topic

Recycling economy

Topic

Low-emission base material production

Topic

Heat transfer media

Topic

Process evaluation

News from our institute

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Events

DLR Solar Colloquium 2025

Following its first edition at the Jülich site last year, the motto of this year's Solar Colloquium is "Solar processes for the chemical Industry". It brings together experts from industry and research to discuss new methods, tools and technologies for sustainable industrial processes.

Departments of our institute

Chemical and physical fundamentals

Solar chemical process development

Solar process demonstration

Evaluation of solar production processes

Careers and Education

Careers and Education

The Institute of Future Fuels is constantly growing due to the social relevance of its research topics. It regularly offers attractive job opportunities, both for researchers and non-researchers, which offer exciting and challenging work in an interdisciplinary and international environment. Whether you are interested in an academic career, a doctoral position, an internship or a job in administration: The Institute has the right position for you.

Insights into research

Video: DLR project SESAM – producing high-purity nitrogen with solar energy (in German)
Is it possible to produce pure nitrogen for agriculture by combining solar heat and air? Absolutely! The current state of the art is to produce nitrogen using cryogenic air separation. However, this releases large amounts of CO₂. An alternative process is thermochemical air separation, which works CO₂-free by using solar heat. In the SESAM project, the DLR Institute of Future Fuels has coupled thermochemical air separation with pressure swing adsorption (PSA) and installed it in a pilot plant. In a two-stage process, the PSA plant produces low-purity nitrogen. Subsequently, most of the residual oxygen is removed in the thermochemical cycle. The solar-generated nitrogen can then be used to produce ammonia-based agricultural fertilisers.

Video: DLR project SESAM – producing high-purity nitrogen with solar energy (in German)

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Video: DLR project SESAM – producing high-purity nitrogen with solar energy (in German)
Is it possible to produce pure nitrogen for agriculture by combining solar heat and air? Absolutely! The current state of the art is to produce nitrogen using cryogenic air separation. However, this releases large amounts of CO₂. An alternative process is thermochemical air separation, which works CO₂-free by using solar heat. In the SESAM project, the DLR Institute of Future Fuels has coupled thermochemical air separation with pressure swing adsorption (PSA) and installed it in a pilot plant. In a two-stage process, the PSA plant produces low-purity nitrogen. Subsequently, most of the residual oxygen is removed in the thermochemical cycle. The solar-generated nitrogen can then be used to produce ammonia-based agricultural fertilisers.