Europe Looks To Allow Synthetic Fuels For Cars After All

The sounds of silence may not be coming for next decade’s supercars after all, with the European Commission (EC) drafting a law to allow “e-fuels” in combustion engines after the zero-emission cut-off date in 2035.

Germany’s automotive industry reacted furiously to the EC’s plan to force all new cars sold by 2035 to be zero-emissions, either by BEV or hydrogen fuel-cell (FCEV) power.

It has been lobbying other countries and the EC itself to force them to allow the use of “e-fuels”, or synthetic fuels that are carbon neutral, even when used in combustion engines.

It seems as though Germany may have succeeded, because a draft proposal has been circulating around the European Commission in the hopes of placating Germany, in particular, but also Italy.

The draft regulation sees a new type of vehicle category added to the post-2035 list for cars that can only use carbon-neutral fuels, with software-driven blockers that prevent them using conventional fossil fuels.

The move is seen as a way forward for automakers to keep producing emotion-driven, combustion-powered supercars, like V12 Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Aston Martins, whose owners care little for the price of fuel.

It also gives a platform to the classic-car groups who own vehicles so valuable they cannot be converted to EV powertrains.

While the EU nations and the European Parliament agreed to the new laws last year, Germany lodged 11^th-hour blocking amendments just days before the vote to make the zero-emissions proposals the law of the continent.

Synthetic fuels were at the heart of those amendments, with the German Transport Ministry insisted it would not support the proposals unless e-fuel cars were allowed to be sold after 2035.

Former Mercedes-AMG Formula One technical director Paddy Lowe has developed his own e-fuels company, Zero Petroleum, while Porsche, Bosch and Siemens are all pursuing pilot synthetic fuel plants.

Formula One will move to Aramco-supplied synthetic fuels in 2026, while it became compulsory for the leading cars in the World Rally Championship to use synthetic fuels from the 2022 season. The fuel is also used in the World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hour race.

How e-fuels work

The concept and even industrialisation of synthetic fuels is not new, and powered the German war machine throughout most of the Second World War.

But the concept of morphing synthetic fuels into carbon-neutral e-fuels is an entirely 2000s construct.

The idea is to close the carbon circle, according to Lowe, where the same amount of carbon is put in to making the fuel as is emitted when it’s used, maintaining the level of atmospheric CO2.

The Zero Petroleum model uses renewable electricity from solar panels and windfarms to power the electrolysis that cracks hydrogen from water, and powers the process to pull carbon from the atmosphere via direct air capture. The two elements are synthesized to make petrol, diesel or natural gas using existing greenhouse gas as a raw material, then utilising existing service-station infrastructure to distribute it.

Zero Petroleum has a contract with Britain’s Royal Air Force to take the aviation arm carbon neutral by 2040, and has already been tested in fighter jets.

Bosch has calculated that running a hybrid on synthetic fuels could be less expensive over a 160,000km lifetime than a long-range EV.

Porsche uses the high winds of southern Chile to power its Haru Oni synthetic fuel pilot plant, which opened last year and produces 130,000 litres of synthetic fuel a year.

It is a joint venture with Siemens Energy, Porsche, Enel, ExxonMobil and Chile’s Gasco, ENAP and AME (which runs the project) and uses a methanol-to-gasoline process, with the same two raw materials as Zero Petroleum – water and air.

Methanol synthesis causes H2 and CO2 to react and produce eMethanol (Ch3OH) which is converted to a petrol that complies with the EU 228 fuel standard, and can also be converted to kerosene for aviation use.