While some want to see it disappear, Porsche is working to make the heat engine less harmful for the climate. The brand has developed a process for producing synthetic fuel that can be used in current vehicles, with a manufacturing process that captures CO2.
Faced with global warming, is the electric car really the only solution? Most environmental associations and many politicians seem to be convinced of this. So much so that the European Union announced this summer that it wanted to end the sale of new thermal models from 2035. But even if this controversial deadline is met, many gasoline, diesel or hybrid engines will still be used long afterwards. this date. In the world, it is thus estimated that there are today 1.3 billion vehicles in circulation, and it will be impossible to convert them all to electric. The Porsche eFuel project could, on the other hand, enable them to reduce their carbon footprint by avoiding the use of fossil fuels.
How does eFuel work?
Completely synthetic, this fuel does not use petroleum. To create it, the German brand uses only two natural materials : water and air! By passing electricity through water, Porsche performs electrolysis which allows it to obtain hydrogen (H2). The other essential compound is carbon dioxide, aka CO2, this greenhouse gas which would be the main cause of global warming. The sports car maker manages to capture it thanks to large fans that send the ambient air through specific filters. A reaction between the H2 and CO2 then allows the production of eMethanol (CH3OH), an alcohol that is finally transformed into unleaded gasoline that can be used in any car thanks to a process called methanol-to-gasoline (MTG, from methanol to gasoline in French).
Is eFuel really less polluting?
EFuel does not in any way reduce polluting emissions in the exhaust, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx) or particles. Porsche therefore does not present this solution as a substitute for 100% electric vehicles, which could represent 90% of the brand’s sales in 2030. On the other hand, thanks to the capture of carbon dioxide upstream, synthetic fuel could make current thermal models climate neutral, without having to scrap them or make costly changes. There remains a major pitfall: the complex production requires a lot of energy. Approximately 20 kWh would be needed for each liter of eFuel. If coal-fired power stations are used for this production, ecology obviously takes its grade. A problem that also face manufacturers who rely on hydrogen, such as Toyota or Hyundai.
A pilot plant in Chile
It is for this reason that Porsche has chosen to set up its eFuel manufacturing pilot plant in Chile., a particularly windy region of the world. Wind turbines provide 3.5 times more electricity there than if they were located in Germany. This would make it the place where renewable energy is cheapest: 15 € / MWh, instead of 28 € / MWh in South Africa and 40 € / MWh in Norway. At the same time, this energy could thus avoid being lost, since the small population located nearby does not allow it to be used directly. However, transporting fuel to Europe undermines the virtuous nature of this equation. But in the long term, Porsche hopes that its eFuel will also be able to supply the boats which are used to take it everywhere on the planet. Another advantage in the face of electric motorization, which today seems unthinkable for maritime and air transport.
Why eFuel rather than bioethanol?
If the E85 bioethanol used in France still contains a significant portion of petroleum, this is not the case with the E100 used in Brazil. One could therefore wonder why Porsche does not prefer to use this “green” fuel, produced from the fermentation of sugars and starch contained in plants. On the surface, it seems indeed much simpler and less expensive to obtain. One of the reasons put forward by the brand is that ethanol would not be suitable for the majority of current vehicles., unlike its eFuel. But the manufacturer also mentions the consumption of water and the immense agricultural areas that would be necessary for the manufacture of biofuel on a large scale. An argument that does not really apply to the French bioethanol sector: it employs less than 1% of the useful agricultural surface, and even less than 0.6% by withdrawing the contribution of co-products for animal feed.
TO READ. Bioethanol E85: all you need to know about this cheaper fuel
When is eFuel coming?
The plant in Chile, in partnership with Siemens Energy and ExxonMobil, will not start producing until mid-2022. With a target only set at 130,000 liters for this year. Initially, this eFuel will only be used to fuel the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Supercup, the most prestigious of the many one-design championships organized by the brand. As often, the manufacturer of Stuttgart will therefore use the competition as a laboratory. There is nothing trivial about the choice of the 911, since one of the half-heartedly acknowledged objectives is to be able to keep this icon alive for as long as possible with a heat engine. The rate should then increase quickly enough to reach 55 million liters per year in 2024, and 550 million liters per year in 2026. But this is still a drop in the bucket in terms of global gasoline production: in France alone, 42.55 billion liters of road fuel in 2020, a year troubled by confinements.
EFuel, how much will it cost?
With such embryonic production, Porsche hasn’t really been able to give us the price of a liter of eFuel at the moment. The brand prefers to project itself further, with an objective of going below 2 dollars per liter, excluding taxes, by 2030. Impossible, under these conditions, to face on equal terms conventional gasoline: in October 2021, despite the current surge in the price of oil, it still amounts to less than a dollar per liter across the Atlantic.
To reduce the gap, the brand is relying above all on increasingly high carbon taxes, which could allow its solution to be more competitive. Regardless of the fuel used, driving a thermal car would thus be much more expensive than today… but thanks to eFuel, it would at least remain possible to do so without contributing to global warming. Enough to give hope to all those who are not convinced by the solution of the forced switch to all electric!
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