Porsche and technology giant Siemens have announced that they are jointly working on a project in Chile that might be able to make the world's first truly carbon-neutral fuels.
The plan for the "Haru Oni" pilot project in Magallanes Province is to produce some 130,000 litres of so-called 'e-fuel' by 2022. The project has been set up in Chile because the climatic conditions in the Magallanes Province ensure almost constant wind to provide the renewable energy needed to meet the project's goals.
Criticism of e-fuels
E-fuels have been criticised as something of a chimera by environmental campaigners, who say that they're an unnecessary distraction on the road to electric power and that they're energy-inefficient to produce compared to charging a battery from mains electricity.
However, the Porsche-Siemens project has some serious backing, including being part of Germany's national hydrogen strategy, and it will get a grant of some 8 million euros from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the ministry announced today.
An increasingly important role
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. So new supply chains are going to arise all over the world to carry renewable energy from one region to another. That's especially important for Germany, which - bottom-line - has to import energy if it's going to meet its nationwide demand. Hydrogen will come to play an increasingly important role in storing and transporting energy. Which is why the German government's support for the project is an important signal."
Porsche CEO Oliver Blume: "Electromobility is a top priority at Porsche. E-fuels 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 decarbonization. Their advantages lie in their ease of application: e-fuels 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 e-fuels plant supports the development of the alternative fuels of the future."
German know-how
Federal Economy Minister Peter Altmaier: "Hydrogen is a key component for successfully carrying out the energy transformation in every sector. That's why, with the National Hydrogen Strategy, we aim to take advantage of the opportunities that hydrogen offers for the climate, energy and economic policy. We know we won't be able to cover our national demand out of domestic production alone, and will need international partnerships. So I'm very pleased to see that Siemens Energy and Porsche are developing production capacity in other countries, along with importing structures, for green hydrogen and its daughter products. Thanks to German know-how, for the first time in the world innovation from the laboratory will now be applied in an integrated, commercial plant."
Siemens claims that its PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) technology is ideally suited to using 'volatile' wind power and that it can create 'green' hydrogen, through electrolysis (basically running an electric current through water to separate out the oxygen and hydrogen). That hydrogen can then be combined with carbon taken from the air to form hydrocarbon molecules - the basis of liquid, petrol-like, fuels. In theory, because such fuels draw carbon from the atmosphere, they have the potential to be carbon-neutral.
Porsche is initially investing some €20-million into the project, which is also supported by oil giant ExxonMobil.