As the drive for decarbonisation in the transport sector gathers momentum, electro-fuels, also known as eFuels, are produced by using electricity to combine hydrogen molecules in water with the carbon in carbon dioxide (CO) .2) — are beginning to gain attention as an alternative fuel with three important selling points in today’s environment. First, eFuels are available now and can be made with current technology, although there is plenty of room for future improvements and growth. Second, because they are considered built-in replacements, they are essentially indistinguishable from conventional fossil-based fuels in use today, meaning they can be used without any changes to existing energy infrastructure. Third, they can tap into a rapidly growing pool of hydrogen and CO2 suppliers eager to secure a diversified set of buyers. In today’s RBN blog, we look at HIF Global’s approach to eFuels production, its demonstration plant in Chile, and its big plans for Texas and beyond.
As we pointed out in Part 1 of this series, there are a number of alternative fuels and government policies that support them. This includes ethanol, a biofuel found in virtually all gasoline purchased in the US; biodiesel, another biofuel that is produced from a variety of feedstocks, including corn oil, soybean oil, animal fats, and used cooking oil; renewable diesel (RD), a biomass-based fuel that can be used in diesel engines or as diesel for home heating; and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which is also made from renewable feedstocks and is a substitute for jet fuel (see our come clean series to learn more). RD and SAF are particularly important because, like eFuels, they are considered direct replacements for conventional diesel and jet fuel, respectively. We must bear in mind that although eFuels have the same CO2 Emissions as conventional fuels when used, come from carbon savings how occur and their dependence on large volumes of CO2 captured either from the atmosphere via direct air intake (DAC) or directly from industrial sources, resulting in fuels with approximately 95% reduction in CO life cycle2 emissions The process basically recycles CO2 that is already in the atmosphere to create new fuels.
In our previous blog, we described the eFuels production process being developed by California-based Infinium, which starts by running water through an electrolyzer that runs on renewable energy to produce green hydrogen. The next step is to combine this hydrogen with CO2 captured from nearby sources such as natural gas processing, steel production, or other industrial activities. The process results in three end products, what Infinium calls eDiesel, eSAF and eNaphtha, with the product mix varying depending on the project and collection demand. (Naphtha is a product of processed crude oil and is a critical component in the manufacture of many plastics and chemicals; see Through the Mirror allowed.)
