INERATEC and Zeopore announce collaboration

At the center of the collaboration is INERATEC’s newly developed hydrocracking process, designed to upgrade Fischer-Tropsch waxes from Power-to-Liquid production into high-value, drop-in-ready fuels and chemicals. Zeopore’s meso-zeolite catalyst technology further increases the performance of this process by enhancing catalytic selectivity, activity and lifetime.

Together, the two companies are committed to realise the rapid, low-risk scale-up of the production of sustainable fuels and chemicals.

INERATEC’s modular Power-to-Liquid plants cover the full value chain of sustainable fuel production — from green CO₂ and hydrogen to drop-in-ready fuels and chemicals. At the core of the process, the reverse water-gas shift reaction and lower-temperature Fischer-Tropsch synthesis are optimally coupled to convert renewable feedstocks into high-quality synthetic hydrocarbons.

By integrating microstructure technology directly into stacked reactor foils with extremely fine channels, INERATEC enables precise mass and heat exchange throughout the process. This reactor design maximises energy efficiency, dynamically adapts to fluctuating renewable power inputs, and provides a highly scalable solution for climate-neutral fuel and chemical production.

Heavy waxes being produced in the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis can be upgraded to high-value e-Fuels in a secondary hydrocracking stage. In this process, long-chain paraffins are cracked and isomerised into branched hydrocarbons with optimal fuel properties, including lower freezing points and improved engine performance.

To further increase process efficiency and strengthen the modular Power-to-Liquid concept, INERATEC has developed its own proprietary upgrading technology: a scalable, modular and cost-effective hydrocracking process specifically designed to convert Fischer-Tropsch waxes into drop-in-ready sustainable fuels and chemicals.

• Higher SAF yield: the low-pressure hydrocracking approach delivers a higher SAF yield by overcoming internal diffusion limitations through advanced catalyst design, enabling more efficient conversion of FT syncrude into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
• Lower OPEX: the simplified process configuration enables lower operating costs by reducing process complexity, minimising energy-intensive operations, and eliminating the need for high-pressure systems, steam integration, and extensive downstream treatment.
• Lower CAPEX: the streamlined plant architecture enables lower capital investment requirements by avoiding complex high-pressure equipment and reducing the number of major process units, supporting a more compact and scalable SAF production solution.

This in-house technology extends INERATEC’s integrated value chain and reinforces the company’s position as a technology leader in Power-to-Liquid production — from CO₂ and hydrogen feedstocks to finished products that can be used in existing infrastructure.

By integrating Zeopore’s catalyst technology into its hydrocracking process, INERATEC further elevates process efficiency. The improved structure of the catalyst, containing engineered 'mesopores' serving as internal molecular pathways, enables a strongly controlled conversion of Fischer-Tropsch waxes into high-value fuels and chemicals.

Combining INERATEC’s proprietary hydrocracking technology and modular reactor design with Zeopore’s highly performant zeolite catalysts is an important performance booster — improving efficiency, product quality and the economic competitivity of synthetic fuel production.

This complementary collaboration is building on Zeopore’s extensive track record of optimising zeolites for cracking, isomerisation, aromatisation and alcohol conversion processes. Zeopore is already actively leveraging this deep-seated expertise to optimise hydrocracking and dewaxing processes for traditional fuel production, but now also expanding towards sustainable CO₂ conversion processes.

Extensive catalytic testing at INERATEC facilities have successfully demonstrated that Zeopore’s catalysts lift traditional diffusion and selectivity constraints in standard zeolites. As a result, the integrated process delivers measurable efficiency gains across the production chain:

• Higher carbon utilisation: improved feedstock retention helps convert a greater share of captured CO₂ inputs into target fuel fractions instead of unwanted byproducts. Moreover, Zeopore's catalyst strongly reduced deactivation rates multiply the catalyst lifetime, and maintained near-complete conversion levels.
• Operational temperature: the Zeopore catalyst allows operating at significantly lower reaction temperatures, saving costly energy and lowering process severity.
• Reduced hydrogen consumption: minimising over-cracking reduces hydrogen consumption with double-digit percentages, directly addressing one of the most dominant cost factors in e-Fuels production.
• Lower byproduct formation: enhanced catalytic selectivity suppresses the generation of undesired lighter gases, simplifying the downstream process, and improving overall efficiency.
• Industrial durability: Zeopore’s modified zeolites have shown stability and recyclability over extended operating periods, increasing long-term plant performance and economics.