Are e-fuels suitable for motorcycles?
Politicians are still reluctant to embrace synthetic fuels, but the chemical industry is continuing to research e-fuel technology. In the future, it will be increasingly important for every biker to find out who represents the interests of the Motorcyclist politically at all. We can help decide the direction at the ballot box and should use this opportunity.
Nowadays, it's more and more about route bans, which are not only enforced at neuralgic points. It's not that motorcyclists are against nature - rather the opposite. But yes, there are others too. But that is and remains the task of the authorities: to take those out of traffic - not to take every motorcyclist into clan custody!
We will not be able to avoid the climate debate. And even if some of the arguments seem far-fetched, I'm sure that this issue will keep us very busy in the coming years. As long as politicians recommend that we only heat our homes to 19 °C and avoid going out at all at the weekend, it is clear where we are heading.
Unnecessary driving back and forth is in Germany is already an administrative offense - and is punishable by a fine of 100 euros under Section 30 (1) sentence 3 StVO. The question is: when will they start to extend such administrative offenses?
Wie sagte Karl Lauterbach noch im Dezember 2020?!
We therefore need measures to tackle climate change that are analogous to the restrictions on personal freedom in the fight against the pandemic. I increasingly doubt whether this is achievable.
Karl Lauterbach Source World 27.12.2020
And the government's actions are once again contradictory. Why are e-fuels not available at filling stations if they are demonstrably climate-friendly? The hydrogen is enriched with CO₂ from the environment - and the synthetic fuel is ready. Sounds too simple, doesn't it?
E-fuels belong in a serious climate debate. Period. Anyone who excludes them is making themselves too comfortable - or has other interests.
Let's take a look into the future!
The specifications for the new Euro 6 standard for motorcycles are expected in April 2022.
With the much stricter Euro 7 emissions standard from 2025, only cars that emit a maximum of 20 milligrams of CO2 will be allowed to be registered in future. For motorcycles, the Euro 5 emissions standard has applied to new registrations since January 1, 2021, although there was still an exemption for a few with Euro 4. In April 2022 are to meet the requirements of the next EURO 6 standard stage for motorcycles will be presented. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this so-called legislative proposal - I fear nothing good!
Last year, the C3-Mobility project was launched at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg's large-scale test facility, where industry and automobile and motorcycle manufacturers started a large-scale trial using around 46,000 liters of synthetic fuel for the Test drives were consumed. I can anticipate that the test drives so far have shown that synthetic fuels in accordance with DIN EN 228 can be used without technical modifications.
Not only for car engines, the motorcycle manufacturer also came to a positive conclusion. E-fuels would be a sensible contribution to climate protection, and at an estimated €1.60 per liter, the price is still within reasonable limits, although a larger supply could bring the price down even further if e-fuels were permitted.
Your opinion on eFuels!
Excerpt from the CAC information on the C3-Mobility project
CAC's e-fuel recognized by industry and science
International automobile and motorcycle manufacturers as well as development service providers such as FEV certify that the synthetic petrol from Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz, or CAC for short, is 100% compatible with the existing vehicle fleet. This means that any vehicle with a petrol or gasoline engine can be driven in a climate-friendly manner. The technology for producing this e-fuel was developed by CAC with the support of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, implemented as Europe's largest test facility in 2009 and is ready for large-scale production - provided the political course is set.
The large-scale test facility at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg produced around 46,000 liters of synthetic petrol as part of the project and made it available to car manufacturers for engine and fleet tests. Green methanol of biogenic origin was used and converted into petrol in a patented, market-ready process.
The results of the project partners were consistently positive and were published at the final event of the project. In all properties, such as material compatibility, CO2 emissions and consumption, the synthetic gasoline is equivalent to fossil gasoline - and even more advantageous in terms of oxidation stability and particulate emissions. As an E10 blend, the drop-in-capable synthetic petrol meets the requirements of the DIN EN 228 standard, is registered under REACH and can directly replace conventional fossil fuels or be blended with them - without any technical modifications to the vehicle. „The confirmation of the project partners is a great success for our technology, because climate protection requires openness to technology,“ explains Jörg Engelmann, Managing Director of CAC.
Synthetic fuels made from water, CO2 and green electricity
The topic is also commonly known as Power-to-X - meaning „electricity to something“. The X can be many things: In addition to petrol, diesel, kerosene, methanol, ammonia, gas or liquid gas can also be produced from CO2 and water. All you need is electricity and various catalysts.
Using highly concentrated carbon dioxide from industrial waste gases or from the air as a starting material for the production of synthetic gasoline is a promising way of applying CAC technology and enables carbon dioxide to be recycled. Using CO2 for fuel production turns an unwanted by-product into a desirable commodity. Industrial companies with high CO2 emissions would not even need to release the carbon dioxide into the environment, but could feed it straight into the fuel production cycle as a raw material. The CO2 savings could be offset against emission certificates - provided the legal requirements are met. The additional hydrogen required is obtained from water using an electrolysis process, ideally with electricity from sustainable energy sources.
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The amount of electricity used to produce eFuels for a range of 100 kilometers would allow a battery-powered electric car to travel 700 kilometers. The efficiency of eFuels is around 15 percent, that of electric cars around 80 percent. The same applies to motorcycles. This means that eFuel is not a good alternative.
I miss the sustainability of e-vehicles, the production of e-fuels can certainly be improved. The production and disposal of batteries is a much bigger problem, which nobody thinks about. In Africa, an old Mercedes will continue to be driven for many years until it is almost completely used up as a spare parts store. It couldn't be more sustainable. What is coming to Africa now, the already poor population is being totally demobilized.
1.60 for a liter of eFuel? You're dreaming of that, more like €5, maybe when we have an abundance of electricity.
And that is also the reason why there is nothing at the gas station, nobody would buy it.
Germany is boring, indecisive, slow, inflexible, typically stupid and German in every respect, but I love our neighboring countries because they live creatively here!