THIS Is Why e-Fuels Won't Work!

The combustion engine will be phased out in Europe from 2035. Apparently climate neutral but astronomically inefficient e-fuels have entered the zero emission transport debate and now, thanks to a few choice lobbyists, they may form a small part of the powertrain mix after the 2035 phase out. In this episode we ask what is an e-fuel, what makes them contentious and who on earth is pushing for them. Let us know what you think in the comments!

00:00 We're mistaken
00:19 What is an e-fuel?
00:50 Caveats
02:25 Who wants them?
03:25 What about car companies?
05:13 A faster horse
05:43 What's next?
06:21 E-fuels or EVs?

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#ev #electricvehicle #battery #energy #zeroemission #carboncapture #hydrogen #efuels #car #automotive #technology #sustainability #greenhydrogen #innovation

[benrobinson]

As a chemical engineer doing research on e-fuel production at Bar Ilan University I would like to contribute these things:
1. We will figure out how to produce it on a large scale soon, it's a matter of discovering the right catalysts for the job (catalysts speed up reactions). How quickly we find these catalysts is related to research funding
2. e-fuels are very useful for aviation since we don't exactly know how long it'll be until we can run commercial flights entirely on electric
3. Yes the fossil fuel companies currently are not good institutions to work with but they have A LOT of capital. Which means that hypothetically if you got all the capital that a current fossil fuel company owns and channeled all of it into e-fuel production, you could product a lot more e-fuel and do it a lot cheaper/more efficiently than if you tried to just create a new e-fuel company from scratch

[donelmediterraneo]

Title : this is why e-fuels wont work
Channel : Fully charged show

OKAY

[sorbeto]

She explaining that "making EVs more exciting" is the same as your mom telling you that there is already "X" thing at home. Is not the same, there is the roar, the vibrations, the reactions, and the power delivery, these are things that normal people like you don't understand. Is like saying that your rings are not needed; they don't help you to be more healthy, they are just a waste of money and time, a waste of important minerals, but you still wear them because you like them. So please don't go saying "make EVs" more exciting because they are not the same. There are some good EVs like the Ioniq 5 N from Hyundai that try to simulate internal combustion but there is no better than actually having an engine roaring with amazing power delivery.

[mikhilmuhuthan]

As a young car enthusiast who wants to enter the car manufacturing industry in the future, I do wish success in the E-Fuel industry. Personally I wish that commercial and economical vehicles likes buses, trucks, trains, vans, basic grocery getters, etc. Go EV or hybrid, nothing pisses me off more than seeing a bus spewing out Black tar like smoke out it's tailpipe while driving through a street. But one industry I wish doesn't get electrified is the sports/muscle performance car market. I grew up around sports/tuner/performance cars throughout my childhood, and now hearing that in the future it won't be possible to hear roaring sounds V6/8/10/12 or spitting flames from the back cars, terrifies me. So that's why I wish e-fuels become a stable alternative. The beginnings are always rough but with time, things can get more efficient and better. Just like computers and the internet.

[willardSpirit]

It may not be a high tech solution but to really reduce carbon emissions we just need to build more walkable, cycling neighborhood with better public transit. Not super high tech but it works!

[MrBezyBez]

I suppose E-Fuels could be a step in the right direction for airplanes. Since the issue for energy density/weight make battery powered planes too heavy for commercial applications (with current battery tech) hydrogen powered planes could be an improvment over jet fuel planes?

[antonialeitz]

The only problem is the pollution to the world once these EV batteries are scrapped or catch fire. Not so green and " Carbon Neutral" then are they?

[TheDoubleBee]

What absolutely drives me up the wall with e-fuels — even if you can make them carbon-neutral, you're still burning them, which produces NOx emissions and hard particles, both of which are directly harmful.

[lewismcnicholas]

This is correct but as a Petrolhead I do think E fuels have a place in the classic car segment going forward

[svwtsvfcb]

Simply put: E-Fuels are probably not a solution for cars and light transport, but definitely for the heavy transport industries, mainly air and marine types but also trucks (even though there seems to be some progress with electric trucks). Also, do not just ignore the charging time and the range of battery vs (e-)fuel vehicles. Finally, any excess of renewable electricity which cannot be stored in batteries may well be stored in hydrogen, even though it results in greater losses, but at least we don't lose all the excess renewable electricity.
E-fuels are needed for other industries than cars, that's for sure.

[magnustan]

I think one point is being overlooked. E-fuels are not going to be, never intended to be and will never be, as prolific as EVs or hydrogen fuel cell. I can see e-fuels playing a role in the decarbonised future, mainly for lorries and buses that travel long distances on a tight schedule. I’m from the “petrolhead” community and I’ll be the first to say, the engine is important in our space. So while our daily drivers go electric, there will be enough e-fuel demand to satisfy our desire to keep the engine going. We are such a tiny proportion of drivers, we don’t need enough e-fuel for every car on the road immediately.

[tomduke]

it is completely baffling to me how this even got so big.... i first heard of them many years ago, did a bit of highschool level math in my head, had a good chuckle and thought i would never hear of em again... boy was i wrong! never underestimate the power of a dieing behemoth ready to throw billions at any straw he can grasp.

[vasylshevchenko]

Here’s how all of the problems with e fuels she proposes could EASILY be fixed.
1 there are several approaches to manufacturing e fuels. The one that requires the least energy input is something called Hydrothermal Liquefaction. Basically you take organic matter (of basically any kind, even sewage for example) and replicate they geological conditions that produce oil in an industrial setting by heating the wet biomass in a sealed chamber so it breaks down under heat and intense pressure into hydrocarbons. This “biocrude” is chemically analagous to natural crude and can be refined into gasoline or jet fuel or whatever you so please. The best part is that is has a near limitless feedstock of carbon neutral materials like sewage and agricultural waste.
2. The energy problem is extremely simple. The production can be powered with nuclear. Nuclear gets a bad rap but do your own research and you’ll see it’s far safer and more efficient than you could possibly begin to imagine. No wind or solar needed. You could have SMRs power the production facilities and produce gobs of biocrude from waste and send it off to existing refineries for processing

[super-retro-]

Anything that stops the proliferation of the EV gets my vote.

[alsareal]

E-fuels have a bright future ahead.

The logistics industry(trucks, planes, ships) cannot rely on battery power bcz of its inferior capabilities to fossil fuel engines.

Mining of Lithium & Cobalt for EV battery production has a huge carbon footprint and also affects the water supply of the surrounding region.

We can't blindly rely on Li-ion batteries forever as they aren't easy to recycle & pose explosive threats. We may have to opt for alternative battery technologies in the future.

E-fuels when at its peak will be cleaner than EVs when the energy source used for hydrolysis of water(for Hydrogen production) is sustainable.

Porsche built an e-fuel factory at Chile dues its abundance of wind energy. Currently 1 gallon of e-fuel costs $40, but I see a great future ahead with more widespread production and subsequent reduction in costs.

[philiphookham]

I worked as a Chemical Engineer on an oil refinery for 36 years and enjoyed owning and driving several exotic and exciting sports cars during that time. However, I've recently purchased a Tesla Model 3 performance which is fuelled by solar panels on the roof of my house. Having had the EV experience, I doubt I'll ever own an ICE powered car again.

[andrewbroadfort]

There is a valid reason to preserve the internal combustion engine in the sparingly driven enthusiast/classic car market. Fortunately the small size of this market means that it has next to no impact on the environment nor energy conservation to begin with. Let's focus our attention on the pollution/waste generated by the general population. People such as yourselves and your audience.

Buses, commuter vehicles, shipping, tourism, construction, etc - focus on these markets as they are the biggest contributors to our dying planet.

[onsokumaru]

Two questions: How much pollution are you generating when you create electricity? What becomes of the dead ev batteries?

[SkepticalCaveman]

There one single E-fuel that actually makes sense: Biogas. It made from biological waste so additional land area is NOT needed, and since trash needs to be collected anyway no additional transports are necessary.

It's also a drop in replacement for natural gas, since it's also methane so it can be used in a gas peaker plants directly.

It's renewable and all that methane would have been released into the atmosphere anyway so it actually a temporary carbon caption method that actually reduces CO2 in the atmosphere.

Biogas would be a great complement to wind, water and solar and much better than hydrogen actually, since making hydrogen wastes a LOT of energy while bacteria does most of the work when making biogas. Biogas is also much easier, and safer to store than hydrogen.

Most efficient use of biogas would actually be using it for electricity generation and at the same use the waste heat for heating homes in the winter. Our local buses here actually runs on biogas made from the trash we recycled ourselves.

[Derwyddcymraeg]

Tbh I saw them as supplier for classic car crew and not much else