Replacing petrol with carbon-neutral synthetic fuel
Discussion
Just when you thought motoring was going all-electric, Porsche & Siemens Energy have just announced plans for the world’s first industrial-scale facilities for manufacturing carbon-neutral synthetic fuel. It can be safely used without modification for all of its cars including classic Porsches.
The factory will be in Southern Chile to capitalize on the country's strong wind energy. This will sustainably power the electrolyzers to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. CO2 will then be filtered out of the air and processed with the hydrogen to create synthetic methanol. Then a proprietary methanol-to-gasoline process provided by Exxon Mobil turns it into e-fuel.
Porsche plans to electrify 50% of its cars by 2025 (either fully electric or hybrid) but believes synthetic fuels could power all of the world's petrol cars where it is not possible to create an adequate electric car charging infrastructure. This new e-fuel is considered preferable to biofuel, because biofuel production impacts on forests and their ecosystems, as well as competing resources required for the food chain.
Initial pilot production will see 34,000 gallons produced in 2022, but will grow to 14.5 million gallons in 2024 and then grow ten-fold to 145 million gallons by 2026.
The factory will be in Southern Chile to capitalize on the country's strong wind energy. This will sustainably power the electrolyzers to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. CO2 will then be filtered out of the air and processed with the hydrogen to create synthetic methanol. Then a proprietary methanol-to-gasoline process provided by Exxon Mobil turns it into e-fuel.
Porsche plans to electrify 50% of its cars by 2025 (either fully electric or hybrid) but believes synthetic fuels could power all of the world's petrol cars where it is not possible to create an adequate electric car charging infrastructure. This new e-fuel is considered preferable to biofuel, because biofuel production impacts on forests and their ecosystems, as well as competing resources required for the food chain.
Initial pilot production will see 34,000 gallons produced in 2022, but will grow to 14.5 million gallons in 2024 and then grow ten-fold to 145 million gallons by 2026.
As Porsche and Siemens have observed, electrical recharging infrastructures are unlikely to be sufficient throughout the world for some time yet.
So an e-fuel like this has an important role to play.
Apart from anything else, it should allow (currently) petrol-powered cars to stay on the road for longer - which is something I welcome.
So an e-fuel like this has an important role to play.
Apart from anything else, it should allow (currently) petrol-powered cars to stay on the road for longer - which is something I welcome.
Gassing Station | Motoring News | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff