Automotive Engineering - April 2024 - 16

eFuels: An Alternative
to the Alternative
The 2024 Toyota
Mirai requires
Low-carbon fuels promise greener
alternatives, but can they deliver?
by Sebastian Blanco
E
ven as electric vehicles dominate today's alternative powertrain
market for passenger cars, the future of how we will all someday
drive without burning petroleum is cloudier than ever. To
decarbonize transportation, governments and companies
around the world are promoting various future technologies, including
hydrogen and synthetic fuels, as alternatives to the alternative.
In the U.S., the road to a hydrogen future recently hit a few roadblocks.
In February 2024, Shell announced it would dramatically scale
back its H2 refueling station plans in California and close some of its
few stations. This dealt a blow to local H2-vehicle drivers as well as
the state's plans for a robust hydrogen infrastructure. When Hyundai
announced in October 2021 that it would support Shell's plans to add
48 additional H2 refueling stations in California, it said that " hydrogen
refueling infrastructure growth is critical to rapidly increase consumer
adoption of zero-emission fuel cell vehicles. "
The link between stations and sales might explain why, at around
the same time as the station closures were announced, some Toyota
dealers in California started slapping $40,000 incentives onto one of
the only hydrogen-powered vehicles available in the U.S., the 2023
Toyota Mirai, which has a starting price of just over $50,000. Toyota
told SAE Media that it remains committed to hydrogen fuel cell technology
" and that it can be a zero-emission solution across a broad
spectrum of products and vehicle types. " In private presentations,
Toyota has hinted that a third-generation Mirai is on the way. The
company also offers them in Japan and Europe.
So it's good news that all things H2 appear to be progressing better
in Europe and Asia. The Hydrogen Council, a group of dozens of
hydrogen industry companies and supporters, released an update to
its regular Hydrogen Insights project in December 2023. The update
said that there have been 1,400 hydrogen projects announced globally
through 2030, with Europe the site of 540 of those. North
America was second with 248. Still, the Council noted that " the clean
hydrogen industry is facing headwinds " regarding the cost and expectations
of producing renewable hydrogen. The rise has " caused a
16 April 2024
hydrogen to refuel.
In early 2024, Shell
announced it would
close many of its
stations in California
and scale back its
expansion plans.
slower development of the global hydrogen industry
than had been previously expected. Such hurdles are
reflected in, for instance, a 10% drop in announced
clean hydrogen supply through 2025. "
Enter eFuels
This brings us to synthetically produced liquid fuels,
sometimes called eFuels. Supporters say these fuels
take CO2 from the atmosphere and use renewable energy
to produce a climate-neutral replacement fuel,
which could mimic gasoline, diesel, airplane fuel, or
other liquids that currently require petroleum.
Among automakers, Porsche has been one of the
most vocal proponents of synthetic fuels, spending
more than $100 million on developing and producing
eFuel. Porsche partnered with Chilean company HIF
Global (Highly Innovative Fuels) to build a pilot plant
to produce synthetic fuels that are " potentially nearcarbon-neutral. "
The plant in southern Chile creates
synthetic gasoline and renewable methanol, similar to
how it's done at other eFuel production sites. Wind
power (plentiful in Patagonia) is used to electrolyze
water, which creates hydrogen, and CO2 is collected
from the air using a ceramic filter (like a catalytic converter).
Porsche said it takes three liters of desalinated
seawater and 6,000 cubic meters of air to collect the
hydrogen and CO2 to make one liter of eFuel. The idea
works as long as green electricity is plentiful and
there's water to be had.
Using claims that echo the U.S. biofuels boom of
around 15 years ago, eFuel proponents say this process,
once fully commercialized, has the potential to
massively decarbonize vehicles with combustion enAUTOMOTIVE
ENGINEERING
TOYOTA
Automotive Engineering - April 2024

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