Barbara Frenkel, member of the chief board for procurement at Porsche, (left) and Michael Steiner, member of the chief board for development and research fuel a 911 with e-fuel at a pilot plant, Punta Arenas, Chile.
Porsche AG
Porsche and several other partners have began production of a climate neutral “e-fuel” geared toward replacing gasoline in vehicles with traditional internal combustion engines.
The German automaker, owned by Volkswagen, said Tuesday that a pilot plant in Chile began business production of the choice fuel. By mid-decade, Porsche is planning to supply hundreds of thousands of gallons of the e-fuel.
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Porsche expects to initially use the fuel in motor sports and at its performance experience centers, followed by other uses within the years to return. Ultimately, the plan is for the fuel to be sold to grease corporations and others for distribution to consumers.
E-fuels are a variety of synthetic methanol produced by a posh process using water, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Corporations say they permit the nearly CO2-neutral operation of gas-powered engines. Vehicles would still need to make use of oil to lubricate the engine.
Within the pilot phase, Porsche expects to supply around 130,000 liters (34,342 U.S. gallons) of the e-fuel. Plans are to expand that to about 55 million liters (14.5 million U.S. gallons) by mid-decade, and around 550 million liters (145.3 million U.S. gallons) roughly two years later.
The Chilean plant was initially announced with Porsche in late 2020, when the automaker said it could invest $24 million in the event of the plant and e-fuels. Partners include Chilean operating company Highly Modern Fuels, Siemens’ renewable energy unit and others.
Company officials say e-fuels can act like gasoline, allowing vehicle owners a more environmentally friendly method to drive. They might also use the identical fueling infrastructure as gas, compared with the billions of dollars in investments needed to construct a network of charging stations for electric vehicles.
But entirely replacing traditional fossil fuels with e-fuels can be difficult and very costly. In 2021, about 134.83 billion gallons of finished motor gasoline were consumed within the U.S., a mean of about 369 million gallons per day, in response to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Still, production of such a fuel would allow Porsche and others a method to proceed producing vehicles reminiscent of Porsche’s iconic 911 sports automotive with a conventional engine alongside, or moderately than, a recent electric model. While electric vehicles can offer outstanding performance, their driving dynamics differ from traditional engines.
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Porsche officials celebrated the start of the e-fuel production with the filling of a Porsche 911 with the primary synthetic fuel produced at the location.
“The potential of eFuels is big. There are currently greater than 1.3 billion vehicles with combustion engines worldwide. Lots of these can be on the roads for a long time to return, and eFuels offer the owners of existing cars an almost carbon-neutral alternative,” Michael Steiner, Porsche’s director of research and development, said in a release.
Steiner and others reiterated Tuesday that the event of the fuel doesn’t change the corporate’s plans to have 80% of its lineup consist of EVs by 2030.