Automotive Engineering - May 2023 - 28

E-fueling
for the
future
A bottle of e-fuel
developed by Karlsruhe
Institute of Technology's
Institute for Micro
Process Engineering.
The development of carbonneutral
e-fuels enjoyed a major
boost from European regulators,
but production cost and scale
remain issues.
by Bill Visnic
S
ynthetic and bio-based liquid " e-fuels " have in various forms
enjoyed fits and starts of industry attention and R&D investment
in recent years. They got the most significant boost
ever in March 2023 when a politically charged deal between
the European Union and Germany brokered an exemption in the EU's
mandate for sales only of EVs starting in 2035. The agreement allows
manufacturers to continue selling internal-combustion models after
the 2035 deadline - but only if they run on carbon-neutral e-fuels.
In an instant, e-fuels were guaranteed a market all to themselves. It
remains to be seen whether e-fuels - at least in their current state of
technology - can answer the call. But as some supporters enthused
after the EU's escort of e-fuels into the post-EV landscape, developers
have more than a decade to address technical challenges and
concerns about production cost and scale.
Maybe most critically, the lifeline that e-fuels represent for internal
combustion assures that IC propulsion remains at least " legally "
acceptable should EVs not prove to be the expected transportationsector
climate panacea in the short-to-mid term. It remains to be
seen whether other aggressive regulatory entities such as the state
of California see the EU's strategy as pragmatic or merely procrastinating.
But e-fuel R&D certainly has a new mandate: Germany's
Transport Minister Volker Wissing said the new e-fuels deal presents
" opportunities for Europe by preserving important options for climate-neutral
and affordable mobility. "
Porsche spearheads e-fuel production
At the moment, Porsche is at the vanguard of e-fuel development.
The brand is the majordomo of what currently is the most ambitious
and mature e-fuels production project at Punta Arenas, in Chile's
Patagonian region. The site was selected largely due to the presence
of strong wind an average of 270 days per year that allows windmills
to operate " at full capacity. " The electricity generated from the windmills
is vital to the production process' guarantee of creating e-fuel
28 May 2023
that Porsche pragmatically claims allows the " nearly
CO2-neutral operation of petrol engines. "
The process at the site Porsche calls Haru Oni is the
manifestation of investment from a variety of partners
that include ExxonMobil and Siemens Energy. The
facility owner is Santiago, Chile-based HIF Global. The
HIF process uses wind power - from a 3.4-megawatt
Siemens-manufactured windmill - for electricity to
obtain hydrogen from water via electrolysis.
Wind energy also powers system that captures
CO2 from the atmosphere in a direct air-capture process;
the CO2 is combined with the hydrogen obtained
from electrolysis to create liquid methanol.
The methanol is superheated and directed over an
ExxonMobil-developed catalyst that converts it into
synthetic gasoline.
" We will only meet our ambitious decarbonization
goals if we factor currently existing vehicles into the
decarbonization effort as well and operate them as
close to net carbon neutral as possible, " said Karl
Dums, senior manager and sustainability team leader
at Porsche AG, in a company interview. He asserted
that e-fuels are the same as petroleum-based fuels in
their basic properties, but are nearly carbon-neutral.
" Porsche was one of the first companies to address
the issue [of continuing the use of IC engines running
on e-fuel] on political, regulatory and business levels, "
Dums said. " We wanted to communicate that from the
outset and create incentives for other companies to
get involved. "
The pilot phase of the Haru Oni plant is earmarked
to produce 130,000 liters (34,342 gal.) of e-fuel, according
to Porsche. All of that capacity is directed to
be used in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup racing series
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
AMADEUS BRAMSIEPE, KIT
Automotive Engineering - May 2023

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