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Electrofuel

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Electrofuels or e-fuels (synthetic fuels) are an emerging class of carbon-neutral drop-in replacement fuels that are made by storing electrical energy from renewable sources in the chemical bonds of liquid or gas fuels.[1][2] They are an alternative to aviation biofuel.[3] The primary targets are butanol, biodiesel, and hydrogen, but include other alcohols and carbon-containing gases such as methane and butane.

Research

A primary source of funding for research on liquid electrofuels for transportation was the Electrofuels Program of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), headed by Eric Toone.[4] ARPA-E, created in 2009 under President Obama’s Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, is the Department of Energy’s (DOE) attempt to duplicate the effectiveness of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA. Examples of projects funded under this program include OPX Biotechnologies’ biodiesel effort led by Michael Lynch[5] and Derek Lovley’s work on microbial electrosynthesis at the University of Massachusetts Amherst,[6] which reportedly produced the first liquid electrofuel using CO2 as the feedstock. Descriptions of all ARPA-E Electrofuels Program research projects can be found at the ARPA-E Electrofuels Program website.[citation needed]

The first Electrofuels Conference, sponsored by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers was held in Providence, RI in November 2011.[7] At that conference, Director Eric Toone stated that "Eighteen months into the program, we know it works. We need to know if we can make it matter." Several groups are beyond proof-of-principle, and are working to scale up cost-effectively.

Electrofuels have the potential to be disruptive if carbon-neutral electrofuels can be cheaper than petroleum fuels, and chemical feedstocks produced by electrosynthesis cheaper than those refined from crude oil. Electrofuels also have a great potential to alter the renewable energy landscape, as electrofuels allow renewables from all sources to be stored conveniently as a liquid fuel.

As of 2014, prompted by the fracking boom, ARPA-E's focus has moved from electrical feedstocks to natural-gas based feedstocks, and thus away from electrofuels.[8]

Porsche and the Haru Oni Project

Towards the end of 2020, Porsche announced it is looking into carbon-neutral fuels as an alternative to existing ones, including electricity. It reasoned back then that “with electricity alone, you can't move forward fast enough” towards the goal of having a cleaner car fleet, and eFuels could be a solution.

The carmaker promised at the time to invest more in such an alternative, and here is the first beneficiary project: the Haru Oni, being run in Chile, South America, together with energy companies Siemens Energy, AME, ENAP, and ENEL.

Synthetic fuels are liquid fuels obtained from coal, natural gas, or biomass feedstocks, and they can be produced through a variety of methods. Haru Oni aims to make synthetic methanol, which is the basis for e-diesel, e-gasoline or e-kerosene. It will do so by harnessing wind power (powerful and constant wind is partially why Chile of all places was chosen for this task), taking CO2 out of the air, and combining it with hydrogen to create the miracle substance.

According to Porsche, this is the first project meant to deliver “the world’s first integrated, commercial, industrial-scale plant for making synthetic climate-neutral fuels.”

By 2022, 130,000 liters of eFuels will be produced, and that volume is set to increase to 550 million liters by 2026. Some of it will go to Porsche, who is the main “customer for the green fuel,” and who will use it for the cars developed by Porsche Motorsport, at the Porsche Experience Centers, and eventually in production cars.[9]

Examples

See also

References

  1. ^ Lovley, Derek (May 26, 2010). "Microbial Electrosynthesis: Feeding Microbes Electricity To Convert Carbon Dioxide and Water to Multicarbon Extracellular Organic Compounds". mBio. 1 (2): e00103-10. doi:10.1128/mBio.00103-10. PMC 2921159. PMID 20714445.
  2. ^ Reece, Steven Y.; Hamel, Jonathan A.; Sung, Kimberly; Jarvi, Thomas D.; Esswein, Arthur J.; Pijpers, Joep J. H.; Nocera, Daniel G. (November 4, 2011). "Wireless Solar Water Splitting Using Silicon-Based Semiconductors and Earth-Abundant Catalysts". Science. 334 (6056): 645–648. doi:10.1126/science.1209816. PMID 21960528.
  3. ^ 2021-03-25T14:13:00+00:00. "How sustainable fuel will help power aviation's green revolution". Flight Global. Retrieved 2021-03-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ "ELECTROFUELS: Microorganisms for Liquid Transportation Fuel". ARPA-E. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
  5. ^ "Novel Biological Conversion of Hydrogen and Carbon Dioxide Directly into Free Fatty Acids". ARPA-E. Archived from the original on October 10, 2013. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
  6. ^ "Electrofuels Via Direct Electron Transfer from Electrodes to Microbes". ARPA-E. Archived from the original on October 10, 2013. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
  7. ^ "SBE's Conference on Electrofuels Research". American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
  8. ^ Biello, David (March 20, 2014). "Fracking Hammers Clean Energy Research". Scientific American. Retrieved April 14, 2014. The cheap natural gas freed from shale by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) has helped kill off bleeding-edge programs like Electrofuels, a bid to use microbes to turn cheap electricity into liquid fuels, and ushered in programs like REMOTE, a bid to use microbes to turn cheap natural gas into liquid fuels.
  9. ^ Patrascu, Daniel (2020-12-03). "Future Porsche Cars to Run on eFuels, Motorsport Machines Included". autoevolution. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
  10. ^ "Audi advances e-fuels technology: new "e-benzin" fuel being tested". Audi MediaCenter. Retrieved 2021-03-30.

External links

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