For some years now, important companies related in some way to the automotive industry, have realized that the future of fossil fuels lies in synthesizing them in the laboratory to eliminate their most polluting chemical elements and enhance their combustion power. This decision has been driven, among other reasons, by the increasingly demanding anti-pollution regulations, especially within the European regulatory framework.
Therefore, in this article I will clarify important aspects and «many doubts» about these fuels.
Synthetic fuel is a type of fuel with really low polluting emissions, which is manufactured from CO2 (carbon dioxide) and hydrogen as the only raw materials. The combination of these two elements results in a microfuel chain, i.e. the synthetic fuel that can be converted into gasoline, diesel or a natural gas substitute for use in combustion engines such as those currently installed in cars, airplanes, trucks and other applications.
So far so good, but the truth is that there is a lot of controversy regarding the way to obtain this fossil fuel, because, as we say, CO2 and hydrogen must be combined, and therefore, this raw material has to come from somewhere.
The point is, in order to create synthetic fuel, energy is needed, and in order to produce that energy, electricity is needed, which can be obtained from renewable or non-renewable sources. Therefore, nowadays, what is being tried is to obtain synthetic fuel, but using renewable sources, such as solar or wind energy, as well as trying to extract CO2 from the atmosphere instead of producing it from coal, to be mixed with hydrogen.
Synthetic fuel produced in this way is known in the jargon as «e-fuel».
Currently, one of the companies that is putting more determination in the development of this type of fuels is the Volkswagen Group, and within this, its sportiest subsidiaries Porsche and Audi. This is because from 2035 the sale of conventional combustion vehicles will be prohibited in the EU, and considering that these subsidiaries base their products on high-performance internal combustion engines, if their sale is prohibited, definitely they will enter into an existential crisis. On the other hand, we also have the incognita of what will happen to the combustion vehicles we have today, how will they fill the tank, will they also prohibit the sale of fuel?
Due to this situation, numerous projects are currently underway to develop facilities for the production of synthetic fuels. And as we have been saying, Porsche is one of the companies that is investing most heavily in the development of these fuels.
It is also important to mention that, when we talk about producing synthetic fuels, we are talking about all types of fuels that we know can be produced in this way, i.e., kerosene, conventional gasoline or diesel. Moreover, the entire existing fuel distribution and storage chain, could be used in the same way without modifications for synthetic fuels, but of course, the problem right now is the highly cost per liter of this type of fuel.
To clarify even more this issue you can check the videos below: