Among the many solutions for the future is synthetic gasoline. Fuel is now a reality, but its price is eye-popping.
In order to reduce CO2 emissions from road traffic and make mobility less dependent on oil, several solutions are being considered. Electrification, inevitably, is the way of reason, but it is not without limits in terms of versatility and continues to animate the debates in terms of production pollution. Hydrogen, interesting on paper, raises some questions in terms of CO2 balance and performance. This is where synthetic fuel comes in and is now a reality.
As Porsche kicked off its own production in Chile, the company Zero Petroleum has just put the first canister of eFuel on the market. A historic 20-litre jerrycan, named 1st Barrel and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by Paddy Lowe, the boss of the English company and former Formula 1 engineer.
A price of €2,825/l for this synthetic fuel
It is more exactly a fuel resulting from petrosynthesis, which consists in obtaining methane from a mixture of hydrogen after electrolysis and carbon dioxide caught in the atmosphere. The electricity-intensive process is advertised as carbon neutral since it is powered by solar and wind energy. 95 octane fuel, similar in energy density to regular gasoline, can be used in all engines with spark plugs.
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It therefore remains to know the price of this fuel, indicated as cleaner and with a CO2 balance from the well to the wheel similar to that of an electric car according to the designers. But the latter has something to cool: Zero Petroleum charges its canister at the price of £50,000. That is €56,505 at the current exchange rate, which corresponds to €2,825/l! It will therefore be necessary to wait for a rise in power in the sector before seeing the costs fall, in order to possibly reach a price of 2 €/l as Porsche hopes.