Going full throttle but climate-neutral

German sports car manufacturer Porsche has been offering electric models for some time now, including the Taycan and the Taycan Sport Turismo. Despite the fact that the combustion engine will be phased out in Europe from 2035, Porsche is sticking to its e-fuel plans and even expanding them, thereby demonstrating its technological neutrality.

The “Haru Oni” e-fuel pilot plant in Punta Arenas, Chile, will supply large quantities of e-fuels as early as 2022. Source: Porsche

Together with Siemens Energy, ExxonMobil and HIF Global LLC , German sports car manufacturer Porsche is vigorously driving forward production of e-fuels. The pilot plant in Punta Arenas (Chile) has already been gone into operation and is expected to produce around 130,000 litres of e-fuels this year. Made from renewable electricity, e-fuels offer the advantage that they allow enables vehicles with combustion engines – both new and old – to be run on a virtually CO₂-neutral basis. According to experts, there will be no rapid decarbonisation in aviation at least and probably not in heavy traffic, either, without synthetic fuels or the use of biogas and hydrogen.

“E-fuels make an important contribution to climate protection and sensibly complement our electromobility,” explains Barbara Frenkel, Member of the Board of Management responsible for Procurement at Porsche AG. “By investing in industrial e-fuel production, Porsche is further expanding its commitment to sustainable mobility. All in all, our investment in developing and deploying this technology amounts to more than 100 million US dollars.”

Barbara Frenkel has been working for the sports car manufacturer from Zuffenhausen for 20 years. Source: Porsche

Porsche stepped up its commitment and acquired a stake in HIF Global LLC, which, among other things, built the “Haru Oni” electric fuel pilot plant in Punta Arenas. “Synthetic fuels offer attractive prospects in all transport sectors – from the automotive industry to shipping,” says Michael Steiner, Member of the Board of Management for Research and Development at Porsche AG. In addition to the pilot project in Chile and a plant in the USA, which is due to be built as early as 2023, there are now plans to build a third e-fuel plant in Tasmania, Australia. The HIF Tasmania Carbon Neutral eFuel Facility will be located about 30 km south of Burnie.

Construction for the e-fuel plants has been progressing rapidly in Chile, and will soon also be built in the USA and the Australian state of Tasmania. Source: Porsche

With an electrolyser capacity of 250 megawatts and an operating life of at least 40 years, the plant is similar to the other two e-fuel plants in Chile and the USA. “Our plan is to produce more than eight billion litres of carbon-neutral e-fuels per year around the world – enough to decarbonise five million vehicles,” said Cesar Norton, President and CEO of HIF Global. “Australia has exceptional renewable energy resources that can be converted into liquid fuels and used in existing engines.”

This conversion of renewable electricity into chemical energy sources such as hydrogen or methane by means of so-called power-to-gas technology also enables surplus renewable energy – primarily produced in our latitudes in summer – to be used in winter. In Switzerland, according to a study by Empa, it would ideally be possible to operate up to one million cars on a CO₂-neutral basis using excess energy from solar or wind installations. (jas, 25. August 2022)

Porsche is stepping up its commitment to the industrial production of e-fuels (from left to right): Clara Bowman (COO HIF Global), Marco Caccavale (VP of Global Sales for Baker Hughes Turbomachinery & Process Solutions), Meg Gentle (Executive Director HIF Global USA), Cesar Norton (President & CEO HIF Global), Barbara Frenkel, Michael Steiner and Andrew Ellenbogen (Managing Diretor EIG Partners) at the signing ceremony. Source: Porsche