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SThey are considered the beacons of hope in the energy transition, not only among fans of the combustion engine: synthetic fuels that can be burned like gasoline or diesel, and at the same time CO.two– They are neutral because they are obtained from renewable energy sources.
These power sources are mentioned over and over again in a triad with battery electric vehicles and fuel cell cars. Especially when the keyword “technology openness” is used. Alone: politicians see “e-fuels”, as synthetic fuels are also called, as nasty competition for electromobility and therefore do not want to allow their use in the car market.
However, a new study now shows that electric cars are not as efficient as expected. At least if you include the location of the green power source, synthetic gasoline can stand up to the efficiency comparison with battery electric vehicles.
The private research institute Frontier Economics has carried out a “comparison of the overall efficiency for production and use” of the two drive variants. Their result: If you include power generation from solar and wind power in other regions of the world in the calculation, climate-neutral combustion engines have “an overall energy balance that’s as good as battery-powered vehicles”.
There are good reasons for this point of view: it is indisputable that synthetic fuels have to be imported for the most part, because they can be produced much more efficiently and cheaply in sunny and windy countries than in Germany. Electric cars in Germany, however, are inevitably filled with German green electricity, which is produced under comparatively inefficient solar and wind power conditions. If you take this into account, the efficiency of both types of drive is practically the same.
Source: WORLD infographic
The researchers’ clients are, of course, anything but neutral. These are Mineralölwirtschaftsverband (MWV) and the Federal Association UNITI of medium-sized mineral oil companies, that is, the lobby of the German oil industry. Of course, he hopes that in the future fuels from renewable sources will be used in traffic and that he will be able to continue to use his service stations, transport networks and large-scale systems. The fact that current regulation is forcing automakers to put massive numbers of electric cars into circulation is seen as a mistake in the oil industry.
“In the energy transition you have to rely on many options and technologies,” demands Elmar Kühn, UNITI CEO. It is politically stipulated that battery-powered vehicles run 100 percent on green electricity, although this is not the case in today’s energy mix. “You have to be honest about it.”
Cheaper to import
Kühn and his colleague Christian Küchen, managing director of MWV, see the Frontier Economics calculations as a contribution to this. In fact, the results of the Cologne scientists are in clear contradiction to similar studies, which they openly admit. If you compare the energy efficiency of battery powered vehicles and synthetic fuel burners, then “Power to Liquid” technology performs extremely poorly according to the conventional calculation method.
This is due to the manufacturing process: to obtain fuels, water is first converted into hydrogen with the help of green electricity and then into CO with carbon.two connected to a fuel. This in turn is burned by the engine and sets in motion. Only 13 percent of the original energy can be used. The battery-powered vehicle, on the other hand, is 70 percent efficient because it uses electricity directly and only loses energy through lines and storage.
“This jump in efficiency is always used in the political debate when it comes to choosing battery electric vehicles over combustion engines,” says study author Jens Perner. “We have a different image from a holistic perspective.”
This approach includes the generation of electricity. The researchers assume that Germany will also not be able to meet its demand for renewable energy from domestic production and imports from neighboring countries in the future. Therefore, part of the demand must be sourced from other regions of the world, ideally in the form of synthetic fuels that can be transported through existing oil logistics chains. “With ‘Power to Liquid’, there is great potential for renewables outside of Europe,” says Perner.
For example, solar energy from North Africa or wind energy from Patagonia. The systems there supply much more electricity than comparable power plants in Germany, because the wind blows more frequently and the sun shines practically every day. Compared to the most efficient location in the world, for example, the performance of solar systems in Germany is just 39 percent, says Theresa Steinfort, a co-author of the study. If these differences are taken into account, the need for wind turbines and photovoltaic systems for the two types of propulsion converges, despite the large energy losses when converting electricity to fuel.
According to Frontier Economics, wind turbines in Argentina with a capacity of three kilowatts would be enough to power a synthetic-powered car in Germany. A battery-powered vehicle in Germany would require 2.3 kilowatts of wind capacity. The calculation is similar with solar power: According to Frontier Economics, a combustion engine would need six kilowatts of power in Morocco, compared to 5.7 kilowatts in German solar fields for an electric car.
Hope for existing vehicles
The automotive industry also expects advances in this technology. Corporations are not interested in selling many internal combustion engines in the future. Synthetic fuels do not compete with electric mobility, Porsche boss Oliver Blume said recently at an event in Nürtingen near Stuttgart. “If you only think about the fact that we have billions of vehicles in the world, we have to come from both sides: looking to the future, clearly electric mobility, but also looking to the past, with synthetic fuels,” Blume said.
Liquid energy from North Africa will not yet be able to contribute to the achievement of the medium-term climate goals, which the EU Commission is currently working to strengthen. The processes for the production of synthetic fuels have been investigated and are technically feasible, but not yet on an industrial scale.
The first smaller systems would be operational in two years, says Küchen. “Larger quantities will only be available towards the end of the decade.” And in the mid-1930s, a full supply can be expected, if the appropriate political decisions are made now.
