Electro-fuels, also called e-fuels, are synthetic fuels made by using electricity from sustainable sources to get hydrogen from water and combine it with carbon extracted from the air. They can replace fossils fuels in existing devices, without pushing up levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide the way that fossil fuels do.
Large and small corporations around the world are developing ways to scale up production of this new generation of fuels. The European Union has prepared a regulatory framework for their use in air and road transport. Rare Earth Permanent Magnet
E-fuel will not solve all problems. Internal combustion engines powered by e-fuels will not match the energy efficiency of electric vehicles. This is acknowledged by e-fuel promoters. On the other hand, even critics of e-fuels acknowledge that they are needed to make aeroplanes and ships more climate-friendly.
Electro-fuels are very similar to fossil fuels (and biofuels) in their chemical compositions and the ways they can be used, stored and transported. Existing devices designed to run on fossil fuels will require little if any modification to run on e-fuels instead.
Yet e-fuels differ from fossil fuels in two important ways:
The inputs used are hydrogen from water, carbon dioxide from air, plus a sustainable source of electric energy, such as solar panels, wind turbines, or hydro-electricity. The European Union’s draft regulations for aviation also include fuels synthesised using electricity from nuclear reactors in the e-fuel category.
Production and use of an e-fuel doesn’t push up levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide for one simple reason: the carbon in the fuel came from the atmosphere in the first place.
That is, no more carbon atoms go into the atmosphere when the e-fuel is burned than were pulled out of the atmosphere when the fuel was made.
Polyethylene Wax Lubricant Someone who likes sharing factual information and fragments of the big picture