Although the automotive sector is advancing towards its complete electrification, there are other alternatives that can reduce or neutralize vehicle fleet emissions. This is the case of synthetic fuels and biofuels, already in the production phase, and which are being tested in the harshest possible scenarios.
The 2023 Dakar Rally will be the most demanding test bench for the new biofuel that has to contribute to decarbonizing everyday mobility. This renewable fuel has been created this renewable fuel developed in the Repsol Technology LabRepsol’s innovation center, with the aim of helping Isidre Esteve and his Toyota Hilux T1+ to be competitive in the race and to significantly reduce their carbon footprint.
The history of this project with Isidre Esteve begins in 2021. At first, a low-emission fuel with 50% of non-fossil origin was tested. That first experience was limited to the prologue and the first stage of the Rally of Morocco, as well as the opening special of the Dakar Rally, as an exploration of the possibilities of this technology. Given the success of that trial, the scientists at the Repsol Technology Lab continued to work hard to go one step further and create an advanced biofuel made up of 75% renewable materials specifically for the Dakar Rally.
dolores cardenas, Head of Product Design at Repsol Technology Lab, describes what the Repsol Toyota Rally Team’s biofuel is like: “Advanced biofuels are fuels produced from organic waste from different sources. For example, lipid residues, such as used frying oils, agroforestry remains, the organic fraction of urban waste. Via different transformation processes, we arrive at fuels that allow us to reduce our carbon footprint by around 90% when compared to conventional fuels. Furthermore, these fuels are supported by the circular economy.”
According to Spanish Association of Petroleum Product Operators (AOP) “From planes to tractors, passing through ships, private vehicles or trucks, the transport of people and goods will continue to require liquid fuels as the main source of energy for a long time.”
In this way, the objective of reducing the intensity of emissions of products manufactured in refineries by 80% could be set. This solution not only takes advantage of an infrastructure network that already exists (refuelling, logistics and distribution systems…), but it can also be used in the vehicles that already circulate on our roads and will represent an enormous opportunity for industrial development for Spain.
Los synthetic fuels They are made from hydrogen and CO2 removed from the atmosphere. For its preparation, electricity from renewable sources is used and through electrolysis, the oxygen and hydrogen are separated from the water, giving rise to renewable hydrogen. Energy companies and automobile manufacturers such as Porsche, Audi or Mazda defend this alternative. According to his calculations, it allows the emissions of a thermal car to be reduced by up to 90% during its use, while avoiding the pollution generated by producing a new vehicle and its corresponding battery.
As for the ecocombustibles, are liquid fuels that are neutral or low in CO2 emissions produced from urban, agricultural or forest waste, from plastics to used oils. They are not made with petroleum.
For the first time, Isidre Esteve and his co-pilot Txema Villalobos Throughout the 14 stages and the prologue of the Dakar Rally, they will have around 6,000 liters of this advanced biofuel, with which they have already competed in 2022 from start to finish in the rallies in Morocco and Andalusia with extraordinary results: an overall seventh place – his best classification in a World Rally-Raid event – and a Top 10, respectively.
«From the first moment, when we were working with the Toyota engineers on the mapping of the engine, because we need a good mapping to take advantage of the full potential of the new biofuel, it was really surprising. We began to have superior results to those obtained with the gasoline used up to now. And that was what encouraged us to take this biofuel to the Dakar 2023», explains the ilerdense pilot.
The new advanced biofuel has been designed at the Repsol Technology Lab using recycled materials such as oil from frying and agroforestry residues
«The project was not born with the exclusive objective of using the new biofuel for the competition, but we use the competition as the best test bench to develop it, because it is a fuel that will reach our day-to-day life, our mobility, with the aim of decarbonizing it”, he adds.
Repsol, which is working on similar initiatives in the MotoGP races or the French Formula 4, will open the first advanced biofuels plant in Spain in Cartagena in the first half of 2023, where it expects to produce 250,000 tons per year. Isidre Esteve’s contribution will therefore be especially decisive in the future of this type of product.