---
title: "E‑fuel made of hydrogen"
canonical_url: "https://www.smoltek.com/e-fuel-made-of-hydrogen/6622/"
date: 2024-01-31
author: "Thomas Barregren"
featured_image: "https://www.smoltek.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/efuel.webp"
categories:
  - name: "IR Blog Posts"
    url: "https://www.smoltek.com/category/ir-blog-posts.md"
tags:
  - name: "e-fuel"
    url: "https://www.smoltek.com/topic/e-fuel.md"
---

# E‑fuel made of hydrogen

It’s evi­dent to every­one that we can’t keep pump­ing oil and gas to fuel our vehi­cles for much longer; every liter increas­es the amount of car­bon diox­ide in the atmos­phere and warms the Earth. But that doesn’t mean we must scrap or rebuild all vehi­cles. With hydro­gen pro­duced by elec­trolyz­ers pow­ered with fos­sil-free elec­tric­i­ty and cap­tured car­bon diox­ide, it is pos­si­ble to cre­ate car­bon-neu­tral equiv­a­lents to today’s fuel. These are called *elec­tro­fu­els*, or *e‑fuels*, and you can learn more about them in this post.

## [](https://www.smoltek.com#hydrocarbons)Hydrocarbons

Vir­tu­al­ly all motor vehi­cles – cars, trains, boats, planes, and rock­ets – are pow­ered by mix­tures of hydro­car­bons. These chem­i­cal com­pounds are chains and rings of dif­fer­ent num­bers of car­bon atoms from which hydro­gen atoms dan­gle like charms.

The hydro­car­bons we use to pow­er vehi­cles come from fos­sils, main­ly algae and plank­ton, which have been trans­formed over hun­dreds of thou­sands of years into gas­es and the vis­cous yel­low-black liq­uid we call petro­le­um, crude oil, or sim­ply oil. These nat­ur­al resources are refined, cracked, and blend­ed into liq­uid nat­ur­al gas (LNG), liq­uid petro­le­um gas (LPG), methanol, jet fuel, gaso­line, kerosene, diesel, or oth­er petro­le­um prod­ucts we use to fuel our vehicles.

### Crash course on hydrocarbons

The fos­sil fuel indus­tries use the term *hydro­car­bon* to refer to nat­u­ral­ly occur­ring petro­le­um, nat­ur­al gas, and coal, as well as their deriv­a­tives and puri­fied forms. Com­bus­tion of hydro­car­bons is the pri­ma­ry source of the world’s energy.

Pure hydro­car­bon is an organ­ic com­pound con­sist­ing entire­ly of hydro­gen and car­bon. In sim­ple terms, a hydro­car­bon can be described as a chain or ring of car­bon atoms to which hydro­gen atoms are bonded.

The num­ber of car­bon atoms and how hydro­gen atoms are bond­ed to the car­bon atoms give rise to many dif­fer­ent types of hydrocarbons.

Nat­ur­al gas, LPG, jet fuel, gaso­line, kerosene, diesel, and oth­er petro­le­um prod­ucts con­sist of mix­tures of hydro­car­bons. Some examples:

*Nat­ur­al gas* con­sists of hydro­car­bons with 1–2 car­bon atoms, pre­dom­i­nant­ly methane and then ethane. If nat­ur­al gas is cooled to ‑163 °C, it becomes a liq­uid and is then called *liq­ue­fied nat­ur­al gas (LNG)*.

*Liq­ue­fied petro­le­um gas (LPG)* con­sists of hydro­car­bons with 3–4 car­bon atoms, main­ly propane, propy­lene, butane, isobu­tane, and buty­lene. It is nor­mal­ly han­dled under pres­sure which makes it liq­uid. When used in vehi­cles, LPG is often called *auto­gas* or just *gas*.

*Jet fuel* con­sists of hydro­car­bons with 5–16 car­bon atoms.

*Gaso­line* con­sists of hydro­car­bons with 10–15 car­bon atoms.

*Kerosene* con­sists of hydro­car­bons with 11–18 car­bon atoms.

*Diesel* con­sists of hydro­car­bons with 16 car­bon atoms or more.

Hydro­car­bons should not be con­fused with car­bo­hy­drates; that would have dev­as­tat­ing con­se­quences for both you and your car.

## [](https://www.smoltek.com#unsustainable)Unsustainable

As you know, we are extract­ing more gas and oil than nature can restore. This is not sus­tain­able, which the 1973 oil cri­sis made peo­ple painful­ly aware of. But this is a minor con­cern com­pared to the cli­mate cri­sis we are head­ing straight into.

Burn­ing fos­sil fuels releas­es a lot of car­bon diox­ide (CO2) into the atmos­phere. This gas traps heat from the sun, like a seal, caus­ing the Earth­’s tem­per­a­ture to rise sim­i­lar to how it does in a green­house. This has been known since 1896.

Yes, that’s right. Human­i­ty has known for over 120 years that our appetite for fos­sil fuels will cre­ate the green­house effect. Yet we went for fos­sil fuel vehi­cles instead of con­tin­u­ing the ear­ly devel­op­ment of alter­na­tives such as elec­tric cars and syn­thet­ic fuels.

### History of the greenhouse effect

As ear­ly as 1824, Joseph Fouri­er sus­pect­ed that human activ­i­ties could affect the Earth’s cli­mate. This idea was explored fur­ther dur­ing the 19th cen­tu­ry. By 1896, Svante Arrhe­nius had cal­cu­lat­ed the first esti­mates of this impact, find­ing that a dou­bling of atmos­pher­ic car­bon diox­ide could raise tem­per­a­tures by 5–6 °C. In 1901, Nils Gustaf coined the term “green­house effect” to describe this phenomenon.

How­ev­er, it wasn’t until 1960 that clear sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence emerged, through Charles David Keeling’s work, show­ing that human activ­i­ties were increas­ing car­bon diox­ide levels.

By the late 20th cen­tu­ry, aware­ness of cli­mate change grew. The for­ma­tion of the Inter­gov­ern­men­tal Pan­el on Cli­mate Change (IPCC) in 1988 was a crit­i­cal inter­na­tion­al acknowl­edg­ment of this issue. The IPCC’s reports high­light­ed the urgent need for action against the increas­ing impact of green­house gases.

The 21st cen­tu­ry has been about turn­ing knowl­edge into action. The Kyoto Pro­to­col and the Paris Agree­ment are sig­nif­i­cant mile­stones, rep­re­sent­ing a glob­al com­mit­ment to address­ing cli­mate change. Despite chal­lenges, these inter­na­tion­al agree­ments show a uni­fied effort to tack­le this glob­al issue.

Today, the jour­ney from rec­og­niz­ing the green­house effect to cur­rent inter­na­tion­al agree­ments shows a slow but steady real­iza­tion of our respon­si­bil­i­ty to the plan­et. It high­lights the impor­tance of sci­ence and inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion in fac­ing cli­mate change.

## [](https://www.smoltek.com#renaissance-of-good-old-ideas)Renaissance of good old ideas

Only under the increas­ing­ly immi­nent threat of melt­ing ice, over­flow­ing seas, water short­ages, and bar­ren farm­land have we begun to look at alter­na­tives. Many ideas from the late 19th and ear­ly 20th cen­turies are expe­ri­enc­ing a renais­sance. Most appar­ent is the res­ur­rec­tion of the bat­tery elec­tric vehi­cle (BEV).

But that’s not the only option. Oth­er old ideas that have been revived are using hydro­gen as fuel, either direct­ly or via con­ver­sion to elec­tric­i­ty. But per­haps the most promis­ing short-term solu­tion is syn­thet­ic fuel made from green hydro­gen. So, let’s take a clos­er look at it.

### **Hydrogen as fuel**

There are two ways to run vehi­cles on pure hydro­gen. Either hydro­gen is used direct­ly as fuel in an inter­nal com­bus­tion engine or con­vert­ed into elec­tric­i­ty to pow­er an elec­tric motor. Here is a brief pre­sen­ta­tion of the two options.

#### Hydrogen combustion

If you remem­ber the chem­istry les­son where the teacher made oxy­hy­dro­gen gas or think of the Hin­den­burg air­ship, you can see how hydro­gen can be used in an inter­nal com­bus­tion engine.

An ordi­nary gaso­line engine is fine as long as the valves and oth­er parts exposed to the heat are made of mate­ri­als that can with­stand the high­er com­bus­tion tem­per­a­ture, and the crank­shafts and oth­er parts exposed to high­er forces are made more durable.

The world’s first hydro­gen-pow­ered car was the Hip­po­mo­bile, designed in 1860 by Eti­enne Lenoir. Today, Hon­da, Kawasa­ki, Suzu­ki, Toy­ota, and Yama­ha are main­ly dri­ving the devel­op­ment of hydro­gen inter­nal com­bus­tion engine vehi­cles (HICEV).

#### Fuel cells

A much more hyped and talked-about use of hydro­gen to fuel vehi­cles is using *fuel cells* to con­vert hydro­gen to elec­tric­i­ty pow­er­ing an elec­tric motor.

Fuel cells work like elec­trolyz­ers but in reverse. While an elec­trolyz­er splits water into hydro­gen and oxy­gen by pass­ing elec­tric­i­ty through water, a fuel cell com­bines hydro­gen from a tank with oxy­gen from the air to cre­ate elec­tric­i­ty with just water as its exhaust. In this way, the fuel cell can replace bat­ter­ies in an elec­tric car.

The first fuel cell elec­tric vehi­cle (FCEV) was a mod­i­fied Allis-Chalmers farm trac­tor around 1959. Today, cars, trucks, bus­es, motor­cy­cles, bicy­cles, fork­lifts, trains, boats, air­planes, and even sub­marines are being devel­oped using fuel cells.

## [](https://www.smoltek.com#electrofuel-e-fuel)Electrofuel (e‑fuel)

*Elec­tro­fu­el*, or short­er *e‑fuel*, is an umbrel­la term for *e‑LNG*, *e‑LPG*, *e‑methanol*, *e‑jet fuel*, *e‑gasoline*, *e‑kerosene*, *e‑diesel* and oth­er syn­thet­ic fuels that can replace their non-pre­fixed coun­ter­parts with­out any mod­i­fi­ca­tion to the engines that use them.

E‑fuels are pro­duced from car­bon diox­ide (CO2), cap­tured from the atmos­phere, and hydro­gen, pro­duced by water elec­trol­y­sis using fos­sil-free elec­tric­i­ty ([green hydro­gen or pink hydro­gen](https://www.smoltek.com/investors/blog/hydrogen-classification-systems/6529/)).

The first syn­thet­ic fuel was pro­duced in 1920s Ger­many by Franz Fis­ch­er and Hans Trop­sch. Their method has since been refined and fur­ther devel­oped. In the ear­ly 2000s, syn­thet­ic fuel got a renais­sance when the idea of e‑fuel began to take shape. Dri­vers today are car man­u­fac­tur­ers like Porsche and Maz­da, oil com­pa­nies like Exxon Mobile, Cir­cle K, Eni, and Rep­sol, and indus­tri­al groups like Siemens, Bosch, Mahle, and ZF.

![Schematic illustration showing the steps of e-fuel production.](https://www.smoltek.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/e-fuel-production-1200x800.webp)

## [](https://www.smoltek.com#recycling-of-co2)Recycling of CO2

E‑fuels con­tain essen­tial hydro­car­bons found in their con­ven­tion­al coun­ter­parts, enabling them to replace these fos­sil fuels seamlessly.

How­ev­er, this rais­es a ques­tion: if both e‑fuel and its fos­sil fuel coun­ter­part emit the same amount of car­bon diox­ide when burned, what is the benefit?

Sure, e‑fuel releas­es as much car­bon diox­ide into the atmos­phere when com­bust­ed as its fos­sil-based coun­ter­parts. How­ev­er, this amount is the same as either cap­tured before it got into the atmos­phere or tak­en from the atmos­phere dur­ing the pro­duc­tion. Thus, the net con­tri­bu­tion is zero. One could say that e‑fuels recy­cle car­bon dioxide.

## [](https://www.smoltek.com#carbon-neutral)Carbon neutral

So, can we say that syn­thet­ic fuel is car­bon neutral?

To make such a bold claim, the process and the raw mate­r­i­al must be car­bon neu­tral. This means that the pro­duc­tion plant must be pow­ered by fos­sil-free ener­gy. It also rules out black, brown, and gray hydro­gen as a feed­stock; such hydro­gen is pro­duced from coal and nat­ur­al gas, which pro­duces huge car­bon diox­ide emissions.

To be tru­ly cli­mate-neu­tral, green or pink hydro­gen must be used. Both are pro­duced by the elec­trol­y­sis of water. Green hydro­gen uses renew­able elec­tric­i­ty from the sun, wind, or water, while pink hydro­gen uses elec­tric­i­ty from nuclear pow­er plants.

The pre­fix ‘elec­tro’ or just ‘e’ refers to hydro­gen pro­duced by water elec­trol­y­sis using fos­sil-free elec­tric­i­ty (green hydro­gen or pink hydro­gen). The com­plete pro­duc­tion process must run on fos­sil-free ener­gy sources to earn the prefix.

![Concept image showing a rocking board balanced on a globe. On the left side of the board is a green leaf. On the right side of the board is a cloud of CO2.](https://www.smoltek.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/carbon-neutral-1200x800.webp)

## [](https://www.smoltek.com#additional-benefits)Additional benefits

E‑fuel has three sig­nif­i­cant ben­e­fits in addi­tion to being climate-neutral:

1. Exist­ing logis­tics net­works can be used. No new infra­struc­ture is required.
2. Exist­ing tanks in vehi­cles can be used. No addi­tion­al con­tain­er for gas is required.
3. Exist­ing motors can be used. No hard­ened motor or con­ver­sion of hydro­gen to elec­tric­i­ty is required.

These advan­tages have giv­en e‑fuel a boost. Around the world, small and large e‑fuel projects are underway.

## [](https://www.smoltek.com#worlds-first-commercial-plants)World’s first commercial plants

Regard­ing e‑fuel pro­duc­tion, the Texas-based com­pa­ny HIF Glob­al has come the furthest.

On 20 Decem­ber 2022, they inau­gu­rat­ed HIF Haru Oni, the first oper­at­ing e‑fuel facil­i­ty in the world. The facil­i­ty, locat­ed in Chile, is com­plete with wind tur­bines to gen­er­ate elec­tric­i­ty, elec­trolyz­ers to con­vert the elec­tric­i­ty into hydro­gen, and a direct air cap­ture (DAC) unit to extract car­bon diox­ide from the atmos­phere. The plant pro­duces e‑LPG, e‑methanol, and e‑gasoline. When ful­ly oper­a­tional, the plant will pro­duce 130,000 liters of e‑fuel annually.

Impres­sive. But HIF Haru Oni is noth­ing com­pared to the company’s next plant. In Texas, they are build­ing the HIF Matagor­da eFu­els Facil­i­ty, which, when com­plet­ed in 2027, will pro­duce 750 mil­lion liters of e‑fuel each year. The elec­trolyz­ers will have a total expect­ed capac­i­ty of about 1.8 gigawatts and pro­duce about 300,000 tonnes of green hydro­gen annually.

And it doesn’t stop there. HIF plans to build 12 plants of the same mega-size dis­trib­uted across Chile, the US, and Australia.

One of the largest investors in the com­pa­ny is the Ger­man car com­pa­ny Porsche. They have invest­ed over 100 mil­lion USD in e‑fuel. Porsche plans to run its entire Super­cup rac­ing series and all the cars at its Porsche Expe­ri­ence Cen­tres on the fuel.

![Aerial view of the HIF Haru Oni Demonstration Plant](https://www.smoltek.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/hif1-1200x800.webp)

HIF Haru Oni Demon­stra­tion Plant. Pho­to: [HIF Glob­al](https://hifglobal.com/).

## [](https://www.smoltek.com#europes-largest-e-methanol-project)Europe’s largest e‑methanol project

E‑fuel pro­duc­tion facil­i­ties are also being built in Europe. Flag­shipONE, out­side Örn­sköldsvik in north­ern Swe­den, will pro­duce 55,000 tons of e‑methanol when it is oper­a­tional in 2025. This makes it the largest of its kind in Europe.

The four elec­trolyz­ers used by Flag­shipONE will have a total capac­i­ty of about 70 megawatts and pro­duce about 12 tons of green hydro­gen per year.

The car­bon diox­ide will be sourced from the adja­cent munic­i­pal heat and pow­er plant, which burns bio­mass. The plant will also sup­ply steam and water to the process. The excess heat will then be fed into the municipality’s local dis­trict heat­ing network.

Flag­shipONE will sup­ply an increas­ing num­ber of ships that run on methanol.

![Concept image showing the FlagshipONE e-fuel plant that Liquid Wind is building in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden.](https://www.smoltek.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/flagship-one-1200x800.webp)

Con­cept image show­ing the Flag­shipONE e‑fuel plant that Liq­uid Wind is build­ing in Örn­sköldsvik, Swe­den. Illus­tra­tion: [Liq­uid Wind](https://www.liquidwind.se/).

## [](https://www.smoltek.com#future-prospects)Future prospects

Naysay­ers and detrac­tors of e‑fuel claim it is a dead end; e‑fuel is cost­ly and a waste of energy.

They may be right regard­ing pas­sen­ger cars and many oth­er types of land trans­porta­tion. Most of these vehi­cles are like­ly to be bat­tery-pow­ered. That tech­nol­o­gy has come a long way and is much cheap­er per kilo­me­ter dri­ven than e‑fuel.

But oth­er­wise, they are wrong. Fuel pro­duced syn­thet­i­cal­ly from green hydro­gen and cap­tured car­bon diox­ide will be one of sev­er­al suc­cess­ful solu­tions to pow­er vehi­cles. No sin­gle solu­tion works for every­one and every­thing, so a vari­ety of solu­tions are needed.

Ship­ping is a good exam­ple. Most experts agree that e‑fuel is the only viable car­bon-neu­tral fuel for large ships like con­tain­er ves­sels. These ships use high­ly pol­lut­ing fos­sil fuels, respon­si­ble for 3% of the world’s CO2 emis­sions. We need e‑fuel to address this. Bat­ter­ies for such ships would be too huge and heavy.

The same goes for air­planes, which also can­not have large and heavy bat­ter­ies on board.

In addi­tion to these mega mar­kets, there will also be niche mar­kets. One is vehi­cles that can be used where charg­ing from a reli­able, clean elec­tric­i­ty grid is impossible.

Anoth­er is sports cars, rac­ing cars, and vin­tage cars, where the sound of an engine revving, the weight, or the preser­va­tion of cul­tur­al her­itage is more important.

In short, the future of e‑fuels is bright and has already begun.