Porsche, Siemens Energy and a lineup of international companies are developing and implementing a pilot project in southern Chile that is expected to yield the world’s first integrated, commercial, industrial-scale plant for making synthetic hydrogen-based climate-neutral fuels (eFuels). What is more, as part of Germany’s national hydrogen strategy, Siemens Energy will get a grant of some 8 million euros from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in support of the project.
Siemens will provide its proton exchange membrane electrolysis technology. To produce hydrogen, electrolyzers use wind energy to split water into oxygen (O) and hydrogen (H). On a second stage, CO2 is filtered directly from the air and then combined with hydrogen to form synthetic methanol (СН₃OH). The result: renewable methanol, which is converted to synthetic gasoline using ExxonMobil-licensed MTG technology (short for Methanol-to-Gasoline).
Christian Bruch, CEO Siemens Energy
“Establishing a sustainable energy economy is going to require some rethinking. Renewable energy will no longer be produced only where it’s needed, but where natural resources like wind and sun are available on a massive scale. New supply chains are going to arise all over the world to carry renewable energy from one region to another. Hydrogen will come to play an increasingly important role in storing and transporting energy.”
Porsche CEO Oliver Blume
“Electromobility is a top priority at Porsche. eFuels for cars are a worthwhile complement to that – if they’re produced in parts of the world where a surplus of sustainable energy is available. They are an additional element on the road to decarbonisation. Their advantages lie in their ease of application: eFuels can be used in combustion engines and plug-in hybrids, and can make use of the existing network of filling stations. By using them, we can make a further contribution toward protecting the climate. As a maker of high-performance, efficient engines, we have broad technical expertise. We know exactly what fuel characteristics our engines need in order to operate with minimal impact on the climate. Our involvement in the world’s first commercial, integrated eFuels plant supports the development of the alternative fuels of the future.”
In the pilot phase, around 130,000 litres of eFuels will be produced as early as 2022. In two further phases, capacity will then be increased to about 55 million litres of eFuels a year by 2024, and around 550 million litres of eFuels by 2026. Porsche will be the primary customer for the green fuel.
If this project successes, eFuels can become not only a good substitution for the traditional gasoline, but also an opponent for electric systems, taking into consideration the fact that a huge variety of cars are perfectly adopted to gasoline systems. Consequently, it is much easier and more profitable to switch to eFuels.
In the automotive industry opinions concerning the synthesized carbon-neutral fuel have splitted. Porsche (and generally the Volkswagen concern) considers such projects to be promising. The same point share McLaren and Ford. But the bosses of Mercedes-Benz / Daimler recently abandoned this idea, considering it unviable, at least in the medium term.
Sources:
https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2020/company/porsche-siemens-energy-pilot-project-chile-research-development-synthetic-fuels-efuels-23021.html
https://www.porsche.com/central-eastern-europe/ru/aboutporsche/pressreleases/?id=619733&pool=international-de