Synthetic fuels have raised hopes that new ICEs can continue to be manufactured, but petrolheads shouldn't get carried away.
The internal combustion engine (ICE) is entering the twilight years of production. For petrolheads, that reality comes with a gut-wrenching, nauseating sense of revulsion. To imagine cars without an ICE is an anxiety inducing thought, filled with fear. It’s the worst nightmare. As a fellow car fanatic, I empathise with this fretting notion. The ICE connects to my sensory network like a sentient being, it creates a deep emotional attachment. It’s a marvellous invention that I do cherish deeply.
But it has an inherent and fundamental flaw. The ICE generates pollutant emissions that damages the earth’s climate. With the combustion of fossil fuels, carbon emissions are emitted into the atmosphere, which trap heat, and result in climate change. This has reached a tipping point that could lead to disastrous consequences for life to survive and thrive on earth, as myriad examples illustrate.
Ultimately, the use of fossil fuels is incompatible for life on earth. This puts the ICE under existential threat. With fossil fuels, the ICE is dependent on an unsustainable source of energy. And that makes the ICE an unviable long-term prospect. Yet despite the avalanche of evidence, the car industry had been indifferent to the growing plight. Carmakers had an ulterior motive. They dragged their feet for financial reasons – money makes the world go around.
Therefore, the conversion to sustainable powertrains has not been initiated by car manufactures themselves. Legislation has set the transition of the car industry in motion, and has forced carmakers to change. It’s resulted in the predominant adoption and acceptance of electric platforms as the solution to cutting carbon dioxide emissions. But is the car industry missing a trick? Synthetic fuels, or carbon-neutral fuels, are claimed by some in the car industry to be the super-serum that can save the ICE from extinction.
"Developing and producing synthetic fuels is currently an expensive and complicated process"
With the prohibition of the ICE set for broadly 2030, and hybrid cars set for broadly 2035, synthetic fuels have been touted as a supposed alternative fuel that could render that ban on the ICE null and void. With the notorious downsides extracted, synthetic fuels have raised hopes in petrolheads that the ICE can be grasped from the jaws of its own demise. But are synthetic fuels really a credible antidote to the poisonous pollutants of petrol and diesel? Developing and producing synthetic fuels is currently an expensive and complicated process.
Yet what differentiates them compared to conventional petrol and diesel fuels, is that carbon dioxide is captured in the manufacturing process. That means synthetic fuels are made from renewable energies. Hydrogen is produced from water via electrolysis; carbon is recycled from industrial processes or captured from the atmosphere via filters. This captured carbon is then synthesised with the hydrogen to make a liquid fuel. And to cap it all off, synthetic fuels could use existing petrol and diesel infrastructure.
It’s something that Porsche and Siemens Energy in particular are interested in researching and developing with partners. Porsche is investing €20m, and as part of Germany’s national hydrogen strategy, Siemens Energy will receive an €8m grant in support for the pilot project from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. For a few key reasons, the facility will be based in Chile. Internationally, the country is suited for producing and exporting green hydrogen. And it has ideal climate conditions to generate wind power, resulting in a low cost of electricity.
Ostensibly, it does sound auspicious. In the pilot phase, about 130,000 litres is set to be produced by 2022. Capacity is then expected to be expanded to ramp up production with 55 million litres produced a year by 2024 and then further increased with 550 million litres produced a year by 2026. The main beneficiary of this synthetic fuel will be Porsche, who will utilize it in their motorsport divisions initially but then make it available for their road cars. It’s an intriguing avenue to pursue.
"Synthetic fuels are not the silver bullet that can replace petrol and diesel fuels. It’s wishful thinking to presume otherwise"
But is it a realistic long-term solution, or just a sophisticated marketing ploy to prolong the life of the ICE? Taken in narrow parameters, on a small scale, synthetic fuels offer a lifeline in specific cases; planes, ships, lorries and a proportionate number of cars over a medium-term for example. It has legitimate credibility as a fuel source that does cut emissions. But as a mass, mainstream fuel source, on a big scale, to replace petrol and diesel, it’s naïve to think that it will be adopted worldwide. It’s a pipe dream, a false dawn fuelling false hope and infantilising petrolheads.
The reality is that production of the ICE is set to cease. Not least because legislation will prohibit sales of the ICE. Administrations worldwide are unlikely to U-turn on that policy, and it makes no commercial sense to continue producing new ICEs at vast expense to carmakers. I know Brexit Britain has exceptionalism issues, and petrolheads may feel entitled to keep driving new examples of ICE. But that misplaced sense of superiority compared to other countries doesn’t work in the reality realm. Carmakers won't continue to make new ICEs for Brexit Britain in isolation.
There would need to be global consensus and recognition at governmental level, and social acceptance of synthetic fuels to permit production of new ICEs. Principally, Porsche’s synthetic fuel roadmap appears to ease the burden on the ICE, by cutting carbon emissions they produce in the short to medium term. To me, that looks like the intention. Right here, right now, synthetic fuels don't appear to be the silver bullet that can replace petrol and diesel fuels. It’s wishful thinking to presume otherwise, which undoubtedly invokes some feelings of melancholy among petrolheads.
More pertinently, if synthetic fuels were always a viable stopgap, why have they not been introduced previously? It comes back to that age-old adage – money makes the world go around. Petrol and diesel fuels make a lot of money for oil companies, and the ICE makes a lot of money for carmakers. In my mind, synthetic fuels are merely an interim fix for a long-term problem that they cannot resolve. The hurdles are just too big to overcome. But they will play their bit part in the bigger picture.
Photo: Porsche
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