what are the synthetic fuels defended by Germany?

by time news

There are different types of synthetic fuels or e-fuels, such as e-kerosene, e-methane or e-methanol. Their common point is to be produced without oil or biomass but from CO2 and hydrogen.

Hydrogen is extracted from water using electrolysis, a chemical reaction obtained by an electric current. As for CO2, it can be captured either in the air directly, a solution that the European Commission seems to recommend for the time being, or in factory discharges. This option, for some, would have the disadvantage of sending the wrong signal to polluting industries. But it would shift carbon from waste status to that of raw material.

Make CO2 a raw material

The use of synthetic fuels – which can be in liquid or gaseous state – does indeed emit CO2. But, assure their promoters, it is part of a “circular carbon economy”. Thus, the quantity of CO2 released into the atmosphere must be equivalent to that which will have been captured to produce these e-fuels.

One of the key points is the nature of the electricity consumed during the production process. The objective is obviously to use electricity drawn from renewable sources, such as wind or solar, or at least low-carbon, as nuclear power is in the eyes of the French authorities. On the other hand, it would obviously be absurd, from an ecological point of view, to mobilize electricity from coal-fired power stations to produce synthetic fuels.

Used in heat engines

These e-fuels have the advantage of being able to be used in heat engines. Hence the interest that many aviation players see in it. Especially since e-kerosene, like biofuels (produced for example from waste oils, agricultural or forestry residues), can be mixed in varying proportions with ordinary kerosene.

For the same reasons, the use of synthetic fuels is sometimes presented as an alternative to the electrification of the vehicle fleet. However, many experts in the sector believe that this solution would, initially at least, be reserved for high-end or even luxury vehicles.

Fuels reserved for Porsche and Ferrari drivers?

Only their owners could in fact afford to pay a price at the pump which promises to be very high. The NGO International Council on Clean Transportation estimates it at €2.82 per liter in France by 2030. And other much higher figures are circulating.

It is therefore no coincidence that Germany, the country of Porsche, and Italy, that of Ferrari, have engaged in a standoff so that vehicles running on synthetic fuels can benefit from an exemption in 2035, date that the Europeans had chosen to stop the registration of new thermal cars in the EU. A shift that manufacturers have already begun to take and which seemed certain until the recent coup orchestrated by Berlin.

Only one factory in the world

For the moment, in any case, the production of synthetic fuels remains embryonic. Oil companies see them as a way to reinvent themselves, at a time of climate transition, by converting part of their production and distribution apparatus. But only one factory, opened in 2021 in Chile, has started producing e-fuels for commercial purposes. This project supported by Porsche should make it possible to produce 55 million liters per year in 2024 and ten times more in 2026. By way of comparison, France consumes around 55 million tonnes of road fuel per year.

The risk of betting on this technological solution, warns an international team led by a researcher from the University of Potsdam in an article published in 2021 by the journal Natureis to meet again “locked into fossil fuel addiction if e-fuels don’t deliver”.

Environmental gaps

These scientists also recommend reserving them – just like hydrogen, which is the subject of many projects in the field of transport – for sectors that have difficulty accessing electricity. We are of course thinking of airplanes and boats, which cannot recharge in the sky or in the middle of the ocean and which would therefore need batteries that are far too heavy and bulky.

NGOs also believe that synthetic fuels pose several ecological problems. Their production requires a considerable amount of electricity. In addition, as shown by tests carried out by the research organization IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN) for Transport & Environment, a car running on e-fuel emits levels of toxic NOx as high as conventional E10 fuel and also a lot more carbon monoxide and ammonia.

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