According to the company, e-fuels are a solution to climate change. The main works on the plant began in September 2021 and the first liters of a synthetic gasoline obtained by combining green hydrogen with carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere were produced in Chile, in a unique plant of its kind, according to the country’s authorities.
According to Economy Minister Nicolás Grau, there is no other plant in the world that is currently capable of this production, and this is a historic event, producing carbon-neutral fuel.
Chile’s Energy Minister Diego Pardow and executives from HIF Global, Porsche, Enel Green Power and Siemens Energy also took part in the inauguration ceremony of the first hydrogen-based “e-fuel” plant.
As part of the demonstration, which took place in the city of Punta Arenas, in the far south of the country, a Porsche 911 Carrera car was filled with the synthetic fuel.
“We are inaugurating the birth of an industry; an ecosystem that will take us into the 22nd century,” said César Norton, president of the company that owns the plant, HIF Global, which is Chilean and developed the project.
According to the company, e-fuels are a solution to climate change. This “e-fuel” is the result of a mixture of green hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2). The former is obtained from water by means of an electrolysis process (which separates hydrogen from oxygen) which, in this case, uses wind-sourced electricity, thanks to the strong winds of Chilean Patagonia. CO2 is captured from the environment through a filtering process.
The combination of the two, through a synthesis process, generates methanol, from which gasoline is obtained that can be used in any vehicle.
The main construction work on the plant began in September 2021 and commercial e-fuel operations are expected to begin in March 2023.
HIF’s bet is to have six plants around the world within a decade, supplying 5 million cars and removing 12 million tons of CO2 a year from the atmosphere.
(Imagem em destaque: Criador – Hugo Orellana. Direitos autorais: Hugo Orellana)
