NOVEMBER 2019
Currently, 200,000 vehicles
in the UK have some form
of electrifi cation in the
powertrain.
Given there are around
35 million vehicles
registered in Britain, the electric
revolution clearly hasn’t fully
reached either the heart or the
wallet of the people. Yet, it seems
likely this will change, albeit
slowly.
There are several projections
on how many electric vehicles will
be running between Tobermory
and Torquay by 2040, with some
forecasts expecting up to 38 million
electric vehicles (including
hybrids).
And herein lies the challenge:
where will the power come from?
Even if we assume that the
charging process becomes
signifi cantly quicker, and even if
we assume that mobility as a whole
develops towards a highly
automated and more effi cient
scenario, we will most probably be
facing a higher demand for
electricity. Estimates on exactly
how much additional energy will
be needed by 2050 go as far as the
equivalent of six nuclear power
plants.
This begs another question:
can we tackle climate change with
ba ery technology alone? Probably
not.
At Bosch we are investing some
400 million euros a year in
electromobility. Nevertheless we
still expect around 80% of new cars
worldwide to still have a
combustion engine on board in
2030. (Aircraft, ships, and
commercial vehicles are a whole
other ma er; the idea of
transporting heavy cargo ships
over long distances with an electric
2050 targets – is
there a role for
synfuels?
Dr Steffen Hoffmann, President, Bosch UK &
Ireland asks whether synthetic fuels have a
role to play in meeting the UK’s CO2 emissions
reduction targets
ba ery remains wishful thinking).
If we want to reduce CO2
emissions as quickly as possible,
then we need to work on all the
technologies available to us,
including ba ery technology and
fuel cells, but we should also work
on further improving the
combustion engine. This is where
synthetic fuels, aka synfuels, come
in.
The process (converting water
into hydrogen and then adding
carbon) is still expensive and
complex, mainly because it
requires a great deal of electricity.
But the fuels themselves are
climate neutral if the electricity is
generated from renewables, such
as solar or wind power.
Many researchers agree;
according to the Energy Policy
Research Group at the University
of Cambridge, “Carbon-neutral
April 2020 / www.theengineer.co.uk 18
synthetic fuels … could off er
sustainable alternatives to
petroleum distillates that currently
dominate the transportation sector
and address the challenge of
decarbonising the fuel mix.” And in
an expert report, dena, the German
Energy Agency, found that “we
need fuels from renewable sources
to meet the EU’s climate goals for
the transport sector.”
Other experts take a more
critical view, concerned by the high
cost of production and the
comparatively low level of
effi ciency. Both are correct, but not
reasons to abandon the topic.
Today synfuels are expensive,
but they could complement
electromobility if we succeed in
producing them mainly where
massive quantities of renewable
energies are available, such as
Scandinavia (wind and water) or
WE NEED TO WORK ON ALL THE TECHNOLOGIES
AVAILABLE TO US
North Africa (sun).
Moreover, the low level of
effi ciency becomes less relevant
once enough green electricity is
available to produce synfuels
– something that could also off er a
whole new world of opportunities
for ho er countries or for those
that are currently highly
dependent on oil.
There are other advantages too:
synfuels are inexpensive to
transport over long distances; cars
are relatively easy to convert to
synthetic fuel usage; they
contribute to energy stability as
they are capable of storing at least a
portion of the sustainably
generated energy. And we could
simply continue using our current
system of petrol stations.
Despite all these advantages,
there have only been a few
experimental prototypes and pilot
projects so far.
Industry and policy makers
therefore need to develop a
cross-sector strategy for synfuels.
Today’s cars can be easily
converted to synthetic fuels,
reducing CO2 emissions instantly
upon launch. The United Kingdom
has promised to go climate neutral
by 2050 at the latest. All remaining
CO2 emissions would need to be
fully compensated for by then.
Synthetic fuels could be a powerful
tool for achieving that goal in the
nearer future.
Synfuels alone will not solve
the climate problem. But they have
the potential to make an important
contribution in the fi ght against
global warming. In the interest of
our climate, we need to take an
unbiased, closer look at every
technological solution – even those
that still appear far-fetched to us
today.
VIEWPOINT
DR steffen hoffmann
/www.theengineer.co.uk