The synthetic fuel, dubbed eFuel by Porsche, is produced by splitting water into oxygen and green hydrogen, mixing CO2 with the green hydrogen to make synthetic methanol, and finally converting the synthetic methanol into eFuel, which can be utilized in conventional internal combustion engines.
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Can Chemistry Save Internal Combustion from Faux Fuel?
Synthetic fuels are being developed by companies like Porsche, BMW, McLaren, and others in the hopes that they will help keep gas-powered engines (and some of our favorite automobiles) on the road.
Some stakeholders want to keep gas-powered engines on the road without using conventional petroleum-based fuel, even as governments and carmakers throughout the world move toward electrification in response to more catastrophic climate predictions.
Porsche, together with partners like Siemens Energy, has invested about $24 million on a sizable commercial synfuels factory for the 911 (and many other cars). The Chilean pilot plant might start running the following year. While McLaren is rumored to be preparing a synfuel-powered prototype, BMW has also made an investment in a synfuels firm.
Porsche wants to create a fuel by harnessing electricity from a wind turbine to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. In order to refine synthetic gasoline, diesel, and kerosene, the hydrogen would then be mixed with ambient carbon dioxide to produce synthetic methanol. Sounds good, doesn’t it? just wind and water.
Maybe, if that were how synthetic fuels were actually produced, but historically, coal, our old friend, has been the source of synthetic fuels. The method to create liquid fuel by superheating coal was invented by German chemists Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch in the 1920s. The Fischer-Tropsch technique, which has been utilized for decades in nations with substantial coal deposits but little oil, such South Africa, helped Germany win World War II.
The modern interpretation of synfuels is that carbon dioxide (CO2) alone, like in the Porsche plant, can be heated at temperatures surpassing 1800 degrees until it transforms into carbon monoxide molecules, in addition to coal, natural gas, biomass from crop waste, and so on. The same extensive hydrocarbon chains that make up the petroleum-derived gasoline that we know and, with some caveats, enjoy are used to connect them to hydrogen molecules.
The value of developing the technology is not universally accepted. The environmental benefits of synfuels, according to Transport & Environment, a European lobbying group with an interest in electric transportation, are “a mirage,” and politicians should continue to concentrate on tailpipe emissions when setting CO2 requirements for new vehicles, the group says. Synfuels, according to some, are a thing of the past. Constraints include continuing to utilize carbon-rich fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, which damage the environment during extraction and release CO2 when burned.
According to Princeton University experts, converting U.S. refineries would cost more than $1 trillion and take between 30 and 40 years, but it would be possible to eliminate up to 50% of car greenhouse gas emissions.
Regarding the limitations of synthetic fuels, Porsche is open and honest. Oliver Blume, CEO of Porsche, announced the factory and said: “Electric mobility is and will always be our objective. The future is here. It must be made clear that we do not view the usage of e-fuels as a substitute for the all-electric drive, but rather as an enhancement of it.”
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Synthetic fuel from Porsche provides all the pleasure without any of the guilt
Porsche has experience with electric cars. Its Taycan is an amazing engineering achievement that offers an option without emissions that is just as exciting and fun to drive as its gas-powered vehicles. However, that hasn’t stopped the brand from looking into other possibilities.
Synthetic fuel research not only offers new opportunities in the world of motorsport but also has the ability to extend the life of internal combustion engines, keeping cherished classics on the road. To that purpose, the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup has since shown that Porsche’s synthetic fuel is suitable for use in high-performance engines. The cutting-edge gasoline was used by all 911 GT3 Cup vehicles in every race of the 2021 season.
A pair of 718 Cayman GT4 RS models demonstrating their dynamic skills in the Austrian town of Zell am See are part of the Stuttgart-based company’s trial of the synthetic alternative in road vehicles.
According to Porsche, the GT4 RS models used a renewable fuel based on an innovative biofuel that was created from food waste. eFuels are produced using wind-generated electricity and are remarkably sustainable. The electrolysis process disassembles water into its constituent parts (hydrogen and oxygen). The CO2 is then treated with the hydrogen to create e-methanol using air-extracted CO2.
It is converted into synthetic raw gasoline in the last phase, known as the methanol-to-gasoline synthesis. After that, it is transformed into a fuel that complies with standards and can be used in all gasoline engines.
The factory, which is in southern Chile, is anticipated to start producing 34,000 gallons of synthetic fuel annually in 2022. The automaker will initially pay for this in full and use the eFuel for its motorsport endeavors. Future generations of the company’s combustion-engined vehicles, which will thankfully include historic cars, will nonetheless use synthetic fuel.
Walter Rohrl, a renowned rally driver, stated, “One of my greatest hopes is that one day I’ll be able to drive older vehicles guilt-free since I’ll be using eFuels to power them. Using eFuels to refuel a car that is 50 years old is the epitome of sustainability.” The bulk of the automobiles on the road are gas-powered, even if electric cars are becoming more and more popular. Synthetic fuel will greatly reduce CO2 emissions while enabling fans to keep using their vintage vehicles without having to switch them completely to electric propulsion.
Porsche Board Member for R&D Michael Steiner stated, “In order to meet the objectives outlined in the Paris Agreement, the transition to electric mobility must proceed more quickly than the estimated 1.3 billion automobiles now on the road worldwide. Additionally, different parts of the world are embracing electric mobility at varying rates, so combustion engine vehicles will continue to be used on the road for many years to come.”
A green type of gasoline to protect internal combustion engines is Porsche’s synthetic fuel!
Porsche has always been on the cutting edge of innovation. And not just in terms of performance! In actuality, Ferdinand Porsche created the Lohner-Porsche, which was manufactured from 1900 to 1905, the world’s first hybrid automobile. This proves that electricity has existed at Porsche for a very long period! It is therefore not surprising that their current lineup contains a number of vehicles that blend sportiness and hybridization. Some of them, like the most current Taycan, even provide all-electric athleticism.
It’s no secret that everyone is thinking about electromobility these days. Nevertheless, the terms “motorsports” and “internal combustion engines” are still used interchangeably. Porsche is well aware of this. Because of this, the firm recently disclosed that it is developing eFuel, a very promising alternative energy, to save internal combustion engines (I.C.E.) in an environmentally benign manner. Below, Porsche Lauzon, your go-to Porsche dealer on Montreal’s North Shore, fills you in on everything.
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Porsche declared that it would begin utilizing synthetic fuels in 2021. The business takes great pride in the fact that so many of the vehicles it has produced over the years are still in use today, and it understands that using synthetic gasoline derived from carbon taken from the air will be necessary to sustain this in an increasingly climatically unstable future.
The Haru Oni pilot plant, which was created for that purpose, was inaugurated in September of last year in Punta Arenas, Chile. That plant is being built and will be run by a Chilean firm called HIF Global, with assistance from Porsche, Siemens Energy, and ExxonMobil. Porsche revealed on Wednesday that it would spend $75 million to purchase a 12.5% share in the firm.
At Haru Oni, the creation of e-fuel begins with the capture of CO2 from the atmosphere and the electrolysis of water into hydrogen and oxygen using wind energy. Methanol is created using carbon and hydrogen, and then ExxonMobil uses its methanol-to-gasoline process to transform it into longer hydrocarbons.
By the middle of the year, the pilot phase of Haru Oni, which received $22 million in funding from Porsche, should begin producing its first synthetic fuel. By the end of 2022, a rate of 34,000 gallons (130,000 L) per year is the goal. At a cost of roughly $7.6 per gallon ($2 per L), production will increase to 14.5 million gallons (55 million L) in 2024 and 145 million gallons (550 million L) by 2026.
Michael Steiner, a member of Porsche’s executive board for Research and Development, predicts that further efuel manufacturing capacity will be added in North America and Australia in the future years, even though this fresh financing won’t change the course of the Haru Oni factory.
“It is wind energy [in Chile]; you might anticipate that solar energy may one day be a source in the US and Australia. However, in general, this should and will result in investments in those two extra regions: North America and Australia “said Steiner. According to Haru Oni, long-term plans call for 12 plants, each absorbing 2 million metric tons of CO2 annually, costing a combined $50 billion.
Steiner told Ars that Porsche had tested synthetic fuels in racing and that there had been no problems at all with the drop-in gasoline.
It also intends to use synthetic fuel for the initial fill of its new gasoline-powered vehicles at the factory and at the Porsche Experience Centers located all around the world when supplies improve. When Formula 1 goes to synthetic fuel in 2026, it might even become a customer; last year, Porsche informed Ars that these negotiations had already started. The aviation and maritime industries will soon need synthetic carbon-neutral fuel as well, and synthetic methanol is valuable as an industrial feedstock. Vehicles aren’t the only prospective clients, either.
But in reality, where all the synthetic fuel is burned really doesn’t matter all that much; what matters is that it burns in place of fossil fuels.
Porsche invests $75 million and pushes synthetic fuel.
In keeping with its aspirations to electrify 80% of its model portfolio by 2030, Porsche announced on Wednesday a $75 million investment in the industrial manufacture of eFuels.
At a briefing, Porsche, which aims to be carbon-neutral by the end of the decade, stated that the technology might allow the manufacturer to continue making its iconic, flat-six-engine sports cars well into the following ten years.
Porsche will get a 12.5% share in HIF Global LLC, a holding company for eFuel manufacturing facilities in the United States, Chile, and Australia, in exchange for its investment. HIF Global LLC is situated in Santiago, Chile. In order to start generating eFuels this summer from hydrogen and carbon dioxide using wind energy at the new Haru Oni eFuel pilot plant in Punta Arenas, Chile, the automaker is presently collaborating with HIF Global and partners, including Siemens Energy and ExxonMobil.
Porsche has the chance to establish itself as a pioneer in the use of eFuels, a synthetic material that can lower emissions across the shipping, aviation, and automotive industries, thanks to its investment in it.
The precise release date for these eFuels for Porsche owners is not yet known. Porsche’s seven Porsche Experience Centers throughout the world, including Atlanta and Los Angeles, may use synthetic gasoline in the vehicles it operates on the racetracks.
In the event that Porsche chooses to participate in Formula One, the eFuel made there might also aid its objectives. According to Michael Steiner, member of the executive board for research and development at Porsche AG, the world racing organization’s announcement last year that it will start using sustainable fuels by the middle of the decade is “a big step in the right direction.” In order to become carbon neutral, Formula One has set a target of 2030.
A hedge against a prolonged battery shortage brought on by the present global supply chain crisis could be observed in the investment in eFuels.
Porsche stated in March that it would add the Macan and 718 to its lineup of battery-electric vehicles by 2025 in addition to the Taycan sedan, as well as launch a private global network of charging stations the following year.
HIF Global announced on Wednesday that it intends to start building an eFuels plant in the United States the following year, followed by sizable establishments in Chile and Australia in 2024.