About The High Price Of Synthetic Fuel Or Efuel

The eFuel factory at Punta Arenas (Chili) was initiated by Porsche, Siemens Energy, and ExxonMobil. The production of eFuel from hydrogen and CO2 here uses wind energy. (Doc. Porsche)

JAKARTA - Discussion on electronic or synthetic fuels continues to be interesting after the European Union allows the use and production of cars with internal combustion engines after 2035, provided they use synthetic fuel (efuel).

The European Union's decision was not only greeted with joy by some car manufacturers but also protested by many other car manufacturers who focused on electric vehicles. Not only that, but efuels are also blasphemed by environmental activists.

According to the efuel-alliance.eu site, efuels or synthetic fuels are produced based on hydrogen extraction. This occurs through an electrolysis process that decomposes water (for example, seawater from the desalination plant) into components, namely hydrogen and oxygen. For this process and further production steps, electricity is needed.

In the second stage of the process, with the help of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, hydrogen is mixed with CO2 extracted from air and converted into liquid energy carriers: efuels. Then, with high pressure with the help of catalysts, hydrogen joins CO2. Since electricity is used for efuel production, this procedure is known as a power-to-liquid process: electricity is converted into synthetic fluids that are easy to store and easy to transport.

Most recently, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research research reported by Carscoop, Thursday, April 27, the cost of producing efuels per gallon turns out to be very inexpensive, reaching 100 times more expensive than one gallon of gasoline. In fact, if the production cost drops to 1 US dollar for 1 liter of efuels, the price is still more expensive than the price of 1 liter of conventional gasoline at gas stations.

Previously, Gerrit Marx, CEO of Iveco, a multinational company producing thousands of commercial trucks from Italy in an interview with Bloomberg at the end of March also said that efuels could only be purchased by super-rich people and not substitute solutions for conventional fuel.

"If you have a Ferrari or if you drive a Porsche Turbo once at the weekend, you won't care if the price of one liter is 6 dollars or 9 dollars, but it's not fuel for the future," the German boss told reporters at Iveco's headquarters in Italy.

Gerrit Marx also compared the same efuel price as a car drinking champagne. According to him, efuels production is still considered expensive and difficult to produce en masse.