It has potential, but there are plenty of caveats
The major problem with ‘synthetic fuels’ or ‘e-fuels’ is that they are expensive and energy-intensive to make. But then you do have virtually CO2-neutral feed for combustion engines. Porsche is therefore one of the major parties that took an interest in the development of e-fuels by linking its name to an e-fuel factory in Chile. But how does it actually work? And what does it yield?
E-fuels are therefore – provided they are produced in certain ways (more about this later) – CO2-neutral fuels. But that does not mean that no CO2 or particulate matter will come out of your exhaust if you burn a liter of the synthetic substance. The CO2-neutral aspect lies in the origin of that CO2. Where the CO2 in fossil fuels is stored in the earth’s soil and ends up in the atmosphere after combustion, e-fuels are preferably made with CO2 that is not (any longer) in the soil. If you burn e-fuels, you emit CO2 ‘again’, instead of contributing to the total amount of CO2 in the atmosphere – thus reinforcing the greenhouse effect. In principle, you cannot do that with synthetic fuels. That is why we can call them ‘CO2 neutral’.
So far the promising idea, which is promising enough for Porsche, among others, to seriously invest in it. Part of those investments resulted in an e-fuel factory in Chile, about which Porsche now explains how synthetic fuels are made from CO2 and hydrogen (H2). That process looks like this:
- Hydrogen is made with energy-intensive electrolysis of desalinated seawater;
- CO2 is extracted from the air via ‘direct air capture’ and a ceramic filter;
- Through energy-intensive synthesis, this hydrogen and CO2 are turned into methanol;
- To make methanol usable for ‘ordinary’ combustion engines, a (not yet, but also sustainable in the future) carbon component is added;
- Et voila: largely ‘sustainable’ fuel that is also suitable for mixing with regular petrol or diesel.
Caveats
For 1 liter of e-fuel, the CO2 from 6,000 cubic meters of air and hydrogen from 3 liters of seawater are used. And for the attentive reader: two energy-intensive processes must take place to convert water and air into a liter of e-fuel. Ergo: synthetic fuels are only sustainable if there is a surplus of green energy. That is why Porsche’s e-fuel factory is located in Chile, in a place where it is very windy. All the electricity needed to make the e-fuels comes from the wind.
In almost all other parts of the world, there is currently no green energy surplus, which means that e-fuels can hardly be made sustainable anywhere. In addition, the production capacity realized so far is downright low. For example, ‘Porsche factory’ currently produces about 130,000 liters per year, which would mean that the production costs per liter are still above €50 (!). According to the German Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, this cost price will fall to €1 to €2 per liter after possible future increases in scale, provided that synthetic fuels are produced on an industrial scale.
E-fuels: scaling up
Please note: this concerns the cost price for production, not the price at the pump. Synthetic fuels are expected to always cost more than gasoline does now. And: if e-fuels are ever introduced on a large scale, it will not be many years from now, because there is still a surplus of green energy – especially with the fast-growing demand for it – by a long shot. At the same time, there are also modalities – such as shipping and aviation – that benefit more from sustainable fuels and therefore deserve priority when claiming what is available. After all, cars can already be powered ‘green’ in other ways, where battery technology is not (yet) suitable for ships and aircraft.
There is still plenty of expansion potential at the e-fuel factory in Chile.
The Chilean factory, which creates its own green energy surplus with the help of a large wind turbine, will scale up to a considerably larger production in the coming years. In 2027, the factory must already produce 550 million liters of e-fuel per year, according to Porsche enough to cover 1.2 percent of the current German fuel needs (Porsche does not specify how many additional wind turbines are needed for such quantities). But will e-fuel-fired vehicles ever be able to take everyone from A to B on a large scale?
Positive development, potential still unclear
That really remains to be seen. First, much more green energy is needed to actually produce sustainable e-fuels. Then there are parties other than ‘ordinary motorists’ – take the aforementioned air and shipping companies – who in principle have to be served first. And if it were to be available at a given moment at the Shell on the corner, it would initially still be quite expensive.
So don’t expect to be able to fill your youngtimer with a sustainable substance in – let’s just say – ten years from now, but the potential is there in principle. Porsche will eventually use the liters currently produced by the Chilean factory in racing, as well as for all kinds of development purposes. Formula 1 also aspires to a complete switch to sustainable fuels in order to be CO2 neutral by 2030.
Regularly available e-fuels are still far from a certainty for car enthusiasts and, in any case, music to the distant future. If they ever become commonplace, it will mean a lot for the continued existence of combustion engines. You will certainly continue to read on this website in the coming years about the developments regarding synthetic fuels.
Synthetic fuels: an exciting prospect or an unviable commodity? What do you expect?
Max and competitors will already drive CO2 neutral in the near future.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl