The Porsche Car 1 Supercup Competition Will Use Synthetic Fuel, Like What?

The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup is given synthetic fuel or eFuels. (Doc. Porsche AG)

Porsche is one of the automotive manufacturers committed to developing vehicles with environmentally friendly alternative energy. Apart from electricity, this manufacturer also does not turn a blind eye to synthetic fuels (eFuels) and even apply them to motorsports.

The Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup race requires 32 cars to use eFuels whose raw materials come from the Haru Oni factory owned by HIF Global in Chile with the aim of the manufacturer wanting to guide the motorsport road to better carbon neutral.

"Motorsport has always been a driver of innovation, now also in terms of fuel. Through this project, we are taking further steps to achieve our decarbonization goals," said AG Porsche Board Member for R&D Michael Steiner, on the brand's official website, Friday, May 3.

The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car used by all contestants will use this alternative energy in eight races in 2024.

The race car, equipped with a manually programmed engine control unit, will be installed with a software version adapted before the start of the race.

The Porsche Car 1 Supercup will be held in eight European races, as the F1 support race this year begins with the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, Italy on May 19 and ends with the Italy Grand Prix at Monza on September 1. In one full season, 32 cars will spend about 50,000 liters of eFuels.

These synthetic fuels are produced from hydrogen and carbon dioxide from the air thanks to the use of renewable energy. This initially produced eMetanol, which was later converted into synthetic crude gasoline.

The Haru Oni project located in Patagonia gains energy for this process from wind power. In the future, gas from biogenic will be extracted directly from the atmosphere in an environmentally friendly manner using the live air catching process (DAC).

Currently, brands are working on the system with Volkswagen Group, HIF Global, and MAN Energy Solutions which aims to show the process is industrially applicable.