In the world where everything and everyone is going electric, Porsche decided to know better and invest their R&D resources into something more sustainable – syntetic fuels. Porsche wants to start trials on syntetic fuels next year, with a goal to prolong the life of internal combustion engines, and doing so also keep their 911 model ‘electric free’ as long as possible. In the past Porsche allready stated that it intends to keep its most iconic model propeled by internal combustion for as long as possible, and this seems like a good way to achieve that.
That is a very good news for petrolheads, since the German car manufacturer has been investigating syntethic fuels for quite some time now. Last year they also announced partnerships with Siemens Energy, AME, Enel and Chilean petroleum company ENAP, to establish a facility for large scale comercial production of syntethic fuels.
This plant will begin operations in 2022 with a capacity to produce around 55 milion liters of syntetic fuel by 2024, and 10 times more by 2026. Porsche chief, Oliver Blume explained the benefits of syntetic fuels for Autocar: “Their advantages lie in their ease of application: e-fuels can be used in combustion engines and plug-in hybrids, and can make use of the existing network of filling stations.”
On this note, Frank Walliser, head of Porsche Motorsport added: “Together with our partners in South America we are on track. For sure, in 2022, it will be very, very small volume for the first trials. It’s a long road with huge investment, but we are sure that this is an important part of our global effort to reduce the CO2 impact of the transportation sector. The general idea behind these synthetic fuels is that there is no change to the engine necessary, unlike what we have seen with E10 and E20, so really, everybody can use it, and we are testing with the regular specs of pump fuel. It has no impact on performance – some horses more, so it’s going in the right direction – but emissions are way better; we see less particles, less NOx – so that’s going in the right direction.”
Porsche synthetic fuel is created by combining hydrogen with carbon captured from the air to produce methanol, which is then transformed into a gasoline substitute that vehicles can use to power their internal combustion engines. The future for Porsche is therefore bright and it is nice to see, that somebody is still rooting for the good old combustion engine instead of taking the ‘electric way out’.
