Audi will be opening its first e-gas plant next year to produce natural gas to supply 1 500 of their new A3 Sportback TCNG vehicles (a first production compressed natural gas vehicle for Audi) in Europe with carbon neutral fuel for a year. The A3 will be powered by a 1,4-litre TFSI engine capable of running on both petrol and CNG and deliver 81 kW and 200 N.m. The car’s combined range will be an impressive 1 180km. If the well-to-wheel CO2 impact of running on synthetic CNG is calculated it works out to less than 30 g/km.
With fossil fuel reserves finite and declining, manufacturers are considering their options. Audi should be commended for venturing into the energy-supply field with its e-fuel experiments namely e-gas, e-ethanol and e-diesel. These fuels are all synthetically produced without the negative impacts associated with biofuels, such as mono-cropping.
The simplified concept is to use renewable electricity (for example, wind energy) to create hydrogen which in turn is combined with CO2 to form e-gas. As the CO2 is added to create the fuel, the carbon dioxide released during combustion is essentially only retuning the CO2 back to the atmosphere. The process is currently expensive as it is done on a small scale but has the potential to rival fossil fuels in the future.
If the above sounds like science fiction then imagine small living organisms producing ethanol and diesel from salt water when exposed to sunlight. This project is still a few years off but Audi has teamed up with American company Joule Unlimited to develop the process of producing e-fuels. Patents are protecting the technology and Audi has acquired the exclusive rights for the automotive sector.
