In the race to go carbon neutral, are efuels the way forward?

Petrol and diesel are on their way out, are e-fuels the way forward?

With the 2030 ban on petrol and diesel cars looming ahead, e-fuels could be the way forward.

We’re not just talking about electric cars (they’re old news), but what about other e-fuels?

With so much recent focus on decarbonising the motor industry, it might surprise you to learn that Germany opposed a landmark European law that all new cars sold from 2035 must have zero CO2 emissions.

So, why the sudden U-turn?

No, it’s not because manufacturers want to keep petrol and diesel in play. In the race to be carbon neutral what we’re seeing is a shift in gears, not a standstill.

While many manufacturers are placing their bets on the electric vehicle (EV), there’s an alternative at play in the form of lesser-known e-fuels.

What are e-fuels?

You might’ve heard the term thrown around in recent years, but what actually are e-fuels?

E-kerosene, e-methane and e-methanol are some prime examples of what we’re talking about; they're made by capturing and then synthesising hydrogen and CO2 emissions produced from using renewable or ‘CO2-free’ electricity.

Until now, much of the effort by manufacturers to decarbonise has been focused on developing and selling more EVs than ever before, but some are now exploring e-fuels as a viable green alternative.

Porsche, for instance, has backed the first ever commercial e-fuel plant, located in Chile, which aims to produce 550 million litres of e-fuels per year.

BMW has also invested a handsome $12.5 million in e-fuel start up Prometheus Fuels alongside the billions they’ve set aside for electric-battery technology.

Additional e-fuel plants are in the works for the immediate future, with Norsk E-fuel in Norway due to begin production next year.

Are they a viable replacement for petrol and diesel? 

While production of e-fuels takes emissions out of the atmosphere, they still release CO2 when combusted in an engine. 

The good news? 

These emissions basically balance out what's captured during production – making them carbon neutral in real terms.

For the motor industry, there are real benefits to using e-fuels, because they can be used in vehicles with an internal combustion engine (ICE), and transported using the pre-existing network set up for dinosaur juice.

Essentially, it’s a way to cut carbon emissions without replacing every passenger vehicle with an EV.

Adapting the current infrastructure, instead of completely replacing it, is a way of decarbonising which is quicker, easier and puts less responsibility on regular people.

However, there’re still problem areas that manufacturers haven’t addressed.

The production of e-fuels requires five times more renewable electricity than running a full EV, according to a paper in the Nature Climate Change Journal, making them both energy intensive and expensive to produce.

No doubt this will also make them expensive to use – but with traditional fuel costs already skyrocketing over the past few years, this might be an unavoidable evil whichever direction the industry goes.

And Europe might not have enough spare renewable power to support e-fuel production at scale, which means it’ll have to be imported from other regions.

Not ideal, when the focus is on reducing the carbon footprint.

Why we should consider e-fuels and EVs

The sale of EVs has so far been the driving force towards decarbonising our roads, with big names like Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz making it clear this is where their focus lies.

While they produce zero emissions on the road, electric vehicles aren't yet a perfect alternative to diesel and petrol.

Production relies on heavy mining and refining of natural elements and minerals such as lithium, copper, cobalt, aluminium, nickel and manganese to create the batteries that EVs rely on.

Some of the biggest producers of these elements are in areas like Chile, Argentina and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), raising concerns about the exploitation of local workers and further deforestation.

The emissions created during EV production tend to be higher than petrol cars due to manufacturing lithium-ion batteries, which release greenhouse gases including CO2, methane, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides.

EV batteries can also last up to 20 years, but when they eventually need replacing, recycling is particularly difficult due to their complex design and high costs.

However, electric vehicle tech is still relatively new, and further developments might help them become both faster on the roads and greener in production. 

The good news is that battery tech is evolving quickly – we're already seeing promising developments that use fewer harmful materials and produce less waste during manufacturing.

And here's the better recycling story; up to 90% of battery materials can now be recovered and reused, cutting down on waste and reducing the need for new mining.

Companies are also taking steps to prioritise ethical sourcing, with initiatives like the Global Battery Alliance developing digital Battery Passports to eliminate child labour in cobalt sourcing.

Even after considering lithium-ion battery manufacturing, EVs are still a greener option.     

Their lifetime greenhouse gas emissions are significantly lower than those of petrol and diesel vehicles, and they're far more energy efficient – EVs only waste about 31-35% of their energy compared to petrol cars wasting approximately 75-84%.

It's up to us to demand better controls around deforestation and working conditions if we want to see EVs continue as the motor industry's mainstream solution to climate change.

The hydrogen alternative

There's another player in the green fuel game that's worth talking about – hydrogen fuel cells.

Unlike EVs that store electricity in batteries, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles generate their own electricity by combining hydrogen with oxygen from the air.

The only byproduct? Water vapour.

Cars like the Toyota Mirai and Hyundai NEXO are already on UK roads, proving that hydrogen isn't just a concept. It's a reality. These vehicles can be refuelled in minutes (much like petrol cars) and offer impressive ranges, often over 400 miles.

But here's where it gets interesting: research from Germany suggests that using both hydrogen and electric vehicles alongside each other could be cheaper than going all-electric.

This mixed approach could reduce the strain on our electricity grid and make the most of our renewable energy sources. 

The challenge? 

Hydrogen refuelling infrastructure is still in its early stages in the UK, with only a handful of stations compared to thousands of EV charging points. 

But as the technology develops and more stations are built, hydrogen could become a serious contender in our journey towards carbon neutrality.

So, is there a perfect solution? 

In the short term, not yet. But who knows how technology will evolve in coming years?

Both e-fuels and EVs are still new – only the latter is currently commercially available – and further ‘green’ technology may develop through innovation.

What is clear is that future investment is needed.

While efuels have promise as a carbon-neutral alternative to petrol and diesel, they are not yet commercially available. Only time will tell if we see them rolled out for commercial use in ICE vehicles, or in industries which are more difficult to decarbonise, such as shipping or aviation.

In the meantime, EVs are here to stay.

The emissions created during their production may need to be examined more closely moving forward, but they are actively reducing emissions on our roads right now.

At the moment we have to accept there isn’t one perfect green alternative to replace fossil fuels. 

Until one is found, it’s clear the motor industry is investing both time and money in more than one solution to reduce its (and our) carbon footprint.