Technology: Does Efuel keep combustion engines alive ?: Set theory

It is still a long way from being entirely electric. Despite all the marketing noise about the end of the internal combustion engine, word got around even in the auto industry. Even if in ten or fifteen years all new cars will supposedly only be available as Stromer: That doesn’t throw a switch and the climate is saved from one day to the next. Karsten Schulze, Technical President of the ADAC, just made it clear: “Millions of combustion engines are on German roads and have a long service life ahead of them. If the climate protection goals are to be achieved in traffic, a solution is needed for this inventory.” “Existing” means: If the last combustion engine actually rolls off the assembly line in 2035, it will definitely still be on the road in 2050. The average “life expectancy” of a car is currently just under ten years. Vehicles with larger cubic capacities last an average of almost 14 years. And even now, more than every fifth car in Germany is over 15 years old. So it makes sense to find a clean solution for this “old stock” too.

The past years have shown that the once highly praised bio-fuels are hardly suitable for this purpose: In order to quench the thirst for fuel made from renewable raw materials, entire primeval forests were cut down and replaced by soy or palm oil plantations, for example. Rather counterproductive for climate protection. Some automakers now see the solution in eFuels. These synthetic fuels are created by first splitting water into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2). The resulting hydrogen is combined with carbon dioxide (CO2), which is obtained from the air, among other things. After a few more steps from the chemistry kit, tailor-made fuels are created that burn cleanly in the engine.

These synthetic fuels can – at least in theory – be produced in unlimited quantities and tailored specifically to the current gasoline and diesel engines. Engines in new vehicles would have to be designed for synthetic fuel. There is even a separate standard for this: EN 15940. And: eFuels can be sold through the existing petrol station network. Manufacturers like Porsche are already rushing ahead. Together with Siemens, the local energy company Andes Mining & Energy (AME) and other partners such as the Chilean mineral oil company ENAP and the Italian energy company Enel, the Swabians are building a pilot plant for the production of synthetic fuels in southern Chile. The pilot project at the other end of the world costs Porsche 20 million euros. First of all, a lot of energy is required to produce synthetic fuels, preferably renewable wind or solar power. In the south of Chile there is a constant breeze blowing from the Antarctic, which leads to a particularly high degree of efficiency of wind turbines – and thus to an abundance of clean and inexpensive electricity.

What tarnishes the beautiful appearance a little is first of all simple set theory: eFuels will not be able to be produced in such quantities for a long time that they could really have an impact on the climate. In Germany alone there are currently over 48 million vehicles on the road. The vast majority of it runs on a combustion engine. They consume almost 52 million tons of fuel per year. Globally, it looks even more abundant: More than 15 billion liters of fuel are burned – every day.

EFuel will not be able to get involved in this for a long time. According to Porsche, around 130,000 liters of eFuel should be produced in the Chilean pilot plant “Haru Oni” in 2022. In two expansion stages, the capacity is then to be increased to 55 million liters per year by 2024 and to 550 million liters by 2026. That’s just enough for Porsche’s own use. The synthetic fuel will initially be used primarily in motorsport and at the in-house customer events of the Porsche Experience Center. In 2026, vintage cars should also be able to fill up with eFuels.

In addition, there are high losses of effectiveness in the production of eFuels. Only ten to 15 percent of the energy used in the production process is left on the bike. For comparison: an electric car achieves an efficiency of 70 to 80 percent of the initial energy. And not everywhere in the world the wind blows as wastefully as in Patagonia. In theory, an efficiency of up to 60 percent is at least possible, according to a report from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), which are trying to get by with significantly less process energy than before in their test facility.

The price is also not very tempting. Production under laboratory conditions will initially result in a liter price of around EUR 4.50. At Porsche, they are fairly optimistic that, after the pilot phase, they will be able to offer eFuels at a price of two to three euros per liter – before taxes. At Bosch, where they are also working on eFuels, they are even more optimistic: “A market ramp-up in production as well as a favorable price development in the electricity price could ensure that synthetically produced fuels become significantly cheaper , 40 euros per liter feasible. “

Even if the climate summit in Glasgow did not exclude eFuels from a combustion ban in the final declaration, things look different in Germany. According to the exploratory paper of the traffic light coalition, only CO2-neutral vehicles will be allowed in Europe from 2035. But these should also be vehicles that can be refueled with eFuels. This can definitely be seen as the first success of the eFuel lobby. The “eFuel Alliance”, which was founded in 2020 and operates worldwide, now includes around 150 companies, associations and individuals. Recently also the ADAC.