Audi working on e-fuel technology

German luxury carmaker Audi is working on its e-fuels strategy, along with its partners Ineratec and Energiedienst Holding. The carmaker has announced plans for a new pilot production facility for e-diesel in Laufenburg, Switzerland.

According to Audi for the first time the energy needed will be supplied using renewable source of hydropower, from the planned facility that will have a capacity of around 400,000 liters per year.

The carmaker has been conducting research into eco-friendly, CO2-based fuels such as e-gas, e-gasoline or synthetically manufactured e-diesel fuel. It is now taking the next step in e-diesel production. “At the project in Laufenburg, thanks to a new technology we are able to handle the production of e-diesel efficiently in compact units, making it more economical. The pilot facility offers scope for sector coupling, in other words combining the energy sectors power, heat and mobility, and makes it possible to store renewable energy,” explains, Reiner Mangold, head of Sustainable Product Development at AUDI.

The in-house developed e-diesel will have the potential to make conventional combustion engines operate almost CO2-neutrally. For producing it the power-to-liquid plant converts surplus hydropower into synthetic fuel. A chemical principle is applied: the green power generated on site in the hydroelectric power station produces hydrogen and oxygen from water by means of electrolysis.

In the next step the hydrogen reacts with CO2, using an innovative and compact microprocess technology. The CO2 can be obtained from the atmosphere or from bio-genous waste gases and, as with all Audi e-fuels, is the only source of carbon. Long-chain hydrocarbon compounds are formed. In the final process step these are separated into the end products Audi e-diesel and also waxes, which are put to use in other areas of industry.

There are plans to produce the first quantities of e-diesel in Laufenburg as early as next year. Audi and the partner companies Ineratec and Energiedienst will submit the planning application for the facility in a few weeks time, with the construction work scheduled to begin in early 2018.

This marks Audi’s second partnership in a pilot facility that operates on the power-to-liquid principle. It is already working together with the energy technology corporation Sunfire in Dresden since 2014. Where, sunfire has been exploring to manufacture e-diesel using the above principle, but involves different technologies. The other Audi e-fuels projects include its own power-to-gas facility in Werlte, north Germany, which makes Audi e-gas – in other words synthetic methane – for the g-tron models A3, A4 and A5.