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Whether you agree with the shift or not it’s a revolution that is going to happen. But the country has a vehicle parc of nearly 40m, and even by the time the ban comes into force a huge number of those combustion engine vehicles will still be on the road. So what happens to them?
While the road to an electrified future is unlikely to come to a stop, there are alternative technologies being developed that could keep the combustion engine running for decades to come.
Synthetic fuel development is receiving increased exposure as engineers research ways to keep combustion relevant. And let’s not forget it’s a means of propulsion that has kept us mobile for over a century, and while it has its drawbacks – emissions and thermal efficiency – it has advantages – adaptability and convenience. But it does need to be cleaner.
Automotive supplier Tenneco is investing in synthetic fuels. Its logic is that climate-neutral e-fuels can be used in petrol and diesel engines with only minor modifications.
Ease of distribution
They can also be distributed easily using existing, well-developed fuel distribution and filling station infrastructure with only small adjustments.
Tenneco has joined a consortium of automotive suppliers, vehicle and fuel manufacturers, chemical companies, Fraunhofer institutes and universities as part of the Namosyn project, which is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
The project exists to develop cost-effective and energy-efficient manufacturing processes for synthetic fuels and to test them in internal combustion engines. In the diesel sector, this means the group of oxymethylene ethers, while for petrol engines the focus is on dimethyl carbonate and methyl formate. In parallel, a wide range of different material configurations is being tested to determine the optimum synthesis and composition over the entire process chain. The research is promising.
“By using synthetic fuels in internal combustion engines, we have been able to demonstrate a reduction of 50% or more in all nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and particle emissions,” said Bartosch Gadomski, senior test engineer and project manager for Namosyn at Tenneco.
Porsche is joining the buzz around the synthetic fuels research. It’s working with Siemens on a pilot project in Chile to produce the fuel.
In the pilot phase, 130,000 litres of e-fuels will be produced as early as 2022. In two further phases, capacity will be increased to 55m litres a year by 2024, and 550m litres by 2026. Porsche will be the primary customer. Other partners in the project are the energy firm AME and the petroleum company ENAP, from Chile, and Italian energy company Enel.
Michael Steiner, a member of the executive board at Porsche, said: “This technology is particularly important because the combustion engine will continue to dominate the automotive world for many years to come. If you want to operate the existing fleet in a sustainable manner, e-fuels are a fundamental component.”
Markets fracture
There’s an obvious elephant in the room. While synthetic fuels can help to reduce tailpipe emissions, they haven’t quite managed to get them down to zero, and that’s what governments around the world – including the UK – are focused on.
But this could be where markets fracture and take different paths. In Europe and China it appears at the moment that electrification will be king. North America could see a more fragmented approach to propulsion technologies depending on region, while less developed markets could carry on with combustion, but in a new guise – synthetic fuels.
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