German engineering and plant construction company Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz GmbH (CAC) has announced has developed a process for producing synthetic fuel from carbon dioxide (CO2), electricity, and water alone. At the Power-to-X (PtX) demonstration plant at Freiberg University of Mining and Technology, the most important process stage, the conversion of methanol into fuel – twelve tonnes of synthetic green fuel have already been produced.
Joachim Engelmann, CEO and CAC shareholder, is convinced that “synthetic fuels are the future of mobility”. According to the EU’s Renewable Energies Directive (RED II), the renewable share of fuels should be 14 percent by 2030 – that is double the amount it is today
We are assuming that in the future, cars will increasingly use synthetic fuel or diesel. The great advantage of synthetically produced fuel – besides the main goal of reducing CO2 emissions – is that car manufacturers can use it to further develop their internal combustion engines, that clean fuel can be compatible with the existing fleet of cars, and that it is also widely available through the existing network of fuel stations, said Joachim Engelmann.
Indeed, all major car manufacturers are researching alternatives such as electric drives or fuel cells, but according to Engelmann, the bottom line is that their global warming potential is currently higher. The advantage of the CAC process is that fuel can be produced almost CO2-neutrally, since only CO2, water, and electricity – ideally from renewable sources – will be required for production.
There are many who are interested in our process but so far no industrial-scale plant has been built. Our most important goal is to build such a plant because the technology is market-ready, said Joachim Engelmann, who says that he is already engaged in “promising negotiations” with a refinery abroad.
According to Engelmann, Germany is not taking the issue seriously enough.
The new climate protection agreement does indeed refer to the aviation industry or trucks, but passenger cars have been omitted for synthetic fuels. Politicians are fixated on the electric car in a manner that is difficult to achieve. If Germany does not recognize synthetic fuels as a strategic goal, as plant manufacturers we have to orient ourselves towards other countries in which these technologies have a future, said Joachim Engelmann.
The research and development work is to be promoted by the Federal Government and the Free State of Saxony as part of the “C3-Mobility” research project. Nevertheless, more than 50 percent of the funds invested in the project are CAC’s own funds.
Poised for Power-to-X
Engelmann highlights that Power-to-X simply means using (renewable) electricity for the electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen. This is then reacted with carbon dioxide to produce X. The X can be many things depending on the use of catalysts – methanol, ammonia, and other synthetic hydrocarbon fuels such as methane, gasoline, kerosene, and diesel.
The carbon needed for the production of hydrocarbons comes from the air or ideally from industrial exhaust gases. In these, the CO2 content is up to 500 times that in “normal” air. This carbon capture and utilization (CCU) or carbon capture and recycling (CCR) becomes a win-win situation for industry as well as for synthetic fuel production.
As a model project, CAC, together with Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe GmbH (MHPSE), has developed and simulated a complete process chain including hydroelectric power generation. The goal of the project is to produce a synthetic high-octane fuel that is almost completely CO2 neutral.
Using carbon dioxide as the basis for producing synthetic fuel is a unique selling point of CAC technology. There are indeed global competitors who are likewise researching synthetic fuels or have also built plants, but they cannot process the CO2 directly, said Joachim Engelmann.
The idea of using excess CO2 for fuel production turns an unwanted byproduct into a valuable commodity. Industrial companies with high CO2 emissions would not even have to release their carbon dioxide into the environment, but instead could immediately introduce it as a raw material into the cycle for fuel production.
The CO2 savings could be accounted for by using emission certificates.
However, the legal basics are not yet being regulated in our favour, ended Joachim Engelmann adding that he hoped that legislators will soon recognize the advantages of the new process and classify the synthetic fuel produced in the CAC demonstration plant as a clean fuel.
