E-fuel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Energy efficiency in the production of various electricity-based energy sources, etc. a. E-fuels. Consumption losses in end-use applications such as automobiles and the like not taken into account

When E-Fuels are synthetic fuels referred to, by means of the current of water and carbon dioxide (CO 2 are produced). This process is known as power-to-fuel and can be implemented using power-to-gas or power-to-liquid technology , depending on whether gaseous or liquid fuels are being synthesized .

Depending on the fuel produced, one speaks specifically z. B. from e-diesel , synthesis gas or the like. As long as the electricity comes entirely from renewable sources and the CO 2 is taken from the atmosphere or comes from biomass, combustion engines can be operated in a climate-neutral manner using e-fuels .

Characteristics

The automotive industry points out that the advantage of using e-fuels over electromobility is that the existing infrastructure (vehicles, filling stations) can continue to be used, since synthetic fuels basically have the same properties as conventional fuel variants and these can thus replace. The high energy conversion losses are a major disadvantage. Cars with combustion engines that run on e-fuels need around five times as much energy per kilometer compared to battery-powered electric cars that can use the electricity directly. The efficiency of e-fuels is around 13 percent so far, which means that 13 percent of the electrical energy used can ultimately be used in the vehicle. In addition, there is currently not enough renewable electricity available to provide climate-neutral e-fuels. In order not to let the electricity consumption increase too much, a high proportion of cars with e-fuels in car traffic is not considered desirable. Instead, more sensible areas of application are aviation and shipping , where electrification is difficult.

Among other things, the conversion losses and the lack of industrial production contribute to high production costs. A study commissioned by the Association of the Automotive Industry comes to the conclusion that the costs for e-fuels are currently up to € 4.50 per liter of diesel equivalent. A reduction to around € 1.00 per liter would appear to be achievable through imports of e-fuels from regions with large quantities of green electricity. Other sources cite pure production costs of 2 to 2.50 euros / liter of fuel for production on an industrial scale, compared to around 30-40 cents for fossil fuels. However, the federal government states that “the expected price reduction by 2030 is associated with uncertainties”. Working group 1 of the National Platform “Future of Mobility” also assumes that “the production costs of electricity-generated fuels are significantly higher than those of their fossil counterparts, even with a positive cost development”.

CO 2 emissions from PtX fuels (including synthetic diesel), e-cars and fossil fuels in comparison depending on the proportion of fossil fuels in the electricity mix

In a study financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research , the Öko-Institut came to the conclusion that electricity-based energy sources will become important in the long term in order to meet the Paris climate protection goals, but that their use only makes sense if the annual average is around 80% green electricity is reached. Until at least 2030, electricity-based energy sources could not make a significant contribution to climate protection, since the production costs (also compared to other climate protection measures such as efficiency increases and electrification of end-use applications) are too high, some sub-processes still have to be scaled up and the availability of sufficient green electricity is a limiting factor. Electricity-based energy carriers also do not automatically contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions , but could also increase emissions compared to fossil fuels , which would be the case if their production led to higher utilization of fossil power plants. Therefore, options for increasing efficiency and reducing consumption, as well as electrification using heat pump heating systems and electric cars, should have priority over the production of electricity-based energy sources. The use of electricity-based materials for climate protection is particularly useful when it "takes place in addition to avoiding demand and increasing efficiency or electrifying applications in areas for which no further technical solutions are available". Funding should therefore be introduced, but it should be ensured "that the introduction of electricity-based substances does not delay the transformation processes in the application sectors towards more efficient technologies (e.g. heat pumps, electric mobility)". In addition, it is necessary to ensure in regulatory terms that electricity-based energy sources actually contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, since there is a conflict of objectives between economically and ecologically optimal operation in their production.

Since e-fuels cannot be distinguished from conventional fuels in terms of their properties, it can be assumed that they cannot contribute to an improvement in air quality either, since air pollutants are also released during combustion.

commitment

As of 2019 there are only demonstration and pilot plants. Accordingly, consumption is virtually non-existent. The future production volumes are also difficult to estimate at the moment: The federal government states that it is not possible for them to “make reliable, realistic statements about possible production volumes or production volumes in Germany”.

The mineral oil company Shell assumes that "PtX fuels [...] would not be expected before 2030, in some cases even later", and currently offers " GTL fuel" separately . On November 6, 2019 went on KIT within the Copernicus projects a test plant the size of a 40 ' - container in operation by carbon extraction from direct air capture currently produces about 10 liters of fuel per day. An expansion to 200 liters per day is planned. While the commercial facility was built by Carbon Engineering in Canada , the facility at KIT is used for research on the practical improvement of the efficiency, which was extrapolated to 60% for the construction in the final stage. This is to be achieved, among other things, by reusing the process heat from the high-temperature co-electrolysis for further process steps, finally for the 95 ° C, which drive the collected CO 2 out of the absorber material.

See also

literature

  • Scientific services of the German Bundestag - Documentation file number WD 5 - 3000 - 008/18, completion of the work: January 22, 2018: E-Fuels. PDF.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c automotive industry - second spring for the combustion engine. In: deutschlandfunk.de. Retrieved February 2, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Agora Verkehrswende and Agora Energiewende: The future costs of electricity-based synthetic fuels: Conclusions from the perspective of Agora Verkehrswende and Agora Energiewende . In: Agora Verkehrswende, Agora Energiewende and Frontier Economics: The future costs of electricity-based synthetic fuels , 2018, p. 11. Accessed on October 21, 2019.
  3. ↑ Synthetic fuels: hopes for an obsolete model. In: spiegel.de. Retrieved February 2, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Volker Quaschning : Sector coupling through the energy transition. Requirements for the expansion of renewable energies to achieve the Paris climate protection targets, taking into account sector coupling . Berlin University of Technology and Economics , June 20, 2016. Accessed August 15, 2017.
  5. ↑ The biggest bang for the buck: Where to use a marginal kWh of renewable electricity in the Swiss transport sector , Giacomo Pareschi, Maximilian Held, ETH Zurich, Institute of Energy Technology, Laboratory of Aerothermochemistry and Combustion Systems, Energy System Group, Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research Efficient Technologies and Systems for Mobility, accessed 2019-10-06.
  6. ↑ The dream in the tank . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 2, 2019. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
  7. ↑ LBST / dena: The potential of electricity-based fuels for climate-neutral transport in the EU , November 8, 2017, p. 4. Accessed on October 21, 2019.
  8. ↑ a b c d Response of the Federal Government to the Small Inquiry Quantities, costs and areas of application of electricity-based fuels in transport . Website of the German Bundestag, March 25, 2019. Accessed October 21, 2019.
  9. ↑ Working group 1 of the National Platform “Future of Mobility”: Ways to achieve the climate goals for 2030 in the transport sector . Interim report 03/2019 of March 29, 2019, p. 35. Retrieved on October 21, 2019.
  10. ↑ Christoph Heinemann et al .: The importance of electricity-based substances for climate protection in Germany, pp. 3-9 . Website of the Öko-Institut . Retrieved November 7, 2019.
  11. ↑ Wolfgang Gomoll: Synthetic Fuels: Solution or Dead End? . In: Automobil Produktion, December 21, 2017. Accessed October 21, 2019.
  12. ↑ About Shell GTL Fuel. Retrieved November 6, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Kopernikus Projects: Power-to-X. Retrieved November 6, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Karlsruhe Institute of Technology: KIT - PI 2019. August 22, 2019, accessed on November 6, 2019 (German).