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HIF Global partners with Topsoe for eFuels facility in Texas; carbon-neutral gasoline

Topsoe will deliver technology to HIF Global’s (HIF) planned eFuels facility in Texas. (Earlier post.) The plant will produce carbon-neutral fuel—enough to decarbonize more than 400,000 vehicles annually.

eFuels are produced by combining green hydrogen made from renewable power and recycled carbon dioxide. HIF’s facility in Texas will help remove 2 million tonnes of CO2 from the air every year.

Topsoe will deliver basic engineering and license for methanol synthesis and TIGAS gasoline synthesis technologies. Later in the project, Topsoe’s scope will be extended to supply methanol reactors and catalysts.

This is our first involvement in a commercial scale Power-to-X facility producing gasoline. Our technology will be used to directly convert renewable hydrogen and CO2 to methanol, which is further converted into plug-and-play gasoline. We are excited to showcase our capabilities in this field and apply the Topsoe methanol and TIGAS technology for eFuels.

—Roeland Baan, CEO at Topsoe

The gasoline synthesis from methanol has been commercially proven in a 15000-bpd plant in Turkmenistan since 2019.

The HIF eFuels plant will be built in Matagorda County in Texas. It will produce 200 million gallons per year of a carbon-neutral gasoline that can be used in today’s cars and gas stations with no modifications required. The eGasoline produced will meet the strict California specifications for conventional gasoline.

The power requirement for the plant will be 2 GW, where 90% is consumed by electrolyzers for the green hydrogen production process. Start of construction is expected by 2023 and first production by 2026.

In April 2022, Porsche announced a US$75-million investment in HIF Global.

Comments

Gorr

It will help bring the price of gasoline down with a new offer.

JamesDo88039200

They don't list price per gallon but it could be in the $8 per gallon range and still make economic sense to a used car buyer compared to BEV on a capital cost plus fuel cost comparison.

I just looked a 2018 Model 3 Tesla used cheapest near DFW is $37590 with 74,000K on it.

2018 VW Jetta same 100 mile radius 10 in stock $15990 @97,400mi that's a delta of $21600

I personally have never kept a car past 150,000 miles and never will.

So life left in Tesla till 150K = 75700
VW = 52600

I filled up yesterday at $2.89 with a 3 year historic ange of 1.68 to 4.15 I keep every gas receipt in a binder along with every oil ect.

So now fuel costs to cover those distances I leased a 2018 Jetts that's why I chose it to compare to a similar sizes model 3. Both seat 5 and both a luxury cars not base models like a KIA that would skew this even more.

My long term avg mpg was 38 for mostly City to City driving.this goes back to keeping every receipt and every mile logged this car was for my LLC and thus a biz lease every single mile and gallon was logged. I do with road trips in the 1000+ mile round trip range on the regular read every three weeks to the Gulf of Mexico(Port of New Orleans,Houston,Mobile), Midland,Mississippi,or Florida.

53600/38=1384.2 gallons times $2.89 = $4000.36

Model 3 = 75700/(4my/kwh)<< had to ask my buddy Evan he owns a 3 and averages 3.5 to 4 miles per key from the plug. 75700/4= 18,925 key I get daily usage reports from my power retailer currently power is 16.1 cents per kwh on a 24 month contract total @2000 kwh per month it goes down with more usage but only a few fractions of a cent due to the meter fees and base charges. So 18,925*0.161= $3,046.925

This is not normalized to common miles and still the ICE is vastly more economic when looking at capital outlays plus gross fuel costs.

Tesla 3 =$37590+3046= $40,636.925
VW Jetta = $15990+4000= $19,990

That's HALF in total costs. There is no way oil changes(@7500mi) brakes(once) and spark plugs(once) to get too 150k from 99k eats $20,000+ now way no how.

Even normalizing upwards the VW to go past 150,000 miles to equal the same miles left in the Tesla till it would hit 150,000 looks like this.

Using the life left in the Tesla @ 75700 then using the mpg for the jetta@38 mpg you get 1,992.10 gallons to cover that distance. At $2.89 which is much higher than the $1.65 in 2020 and $1.80s in 2019 and down from $4.05 that lasted for less than three weeks. 1,992.*$2.89= 5,757.18

Jetta run past 150k $15990+5757=$ 21,747
Tesla 3 to 150k=$37590+3046= $40,636

Still 18,888 more for the BEV, same five adults down the road , same all leather high end interor. Neither has self drive those model 3 start used at $50k I just looked. Both have active cruise and lane control and smart brakes.

So now my point. How high could carbon neutral gas be and match mile for mile in total capital outlays and gross fuel costs. Of course oil at 7500 mile increments would add $35 each , spark plugs once at 120k and brakes once at 100k but with $18,000 to spend its a rounding error.

(37590-15990)+((75700/38)*X)=40636
Solve for X
X=$9.556 per gallon

Let that sink in if carbon neutral synthetic gasoline is anything cheap retail than $9.56 per gallon then in tha used market it makes sense today to burn it. The numbers get worse for a model S I chose the cheapest small BEV with comparable class fit and status level to a common used ICE.

Even allowing for 75700/7500= ten oil changes @45 bucks each that's only $450, brakes are $580 I just looked up VW service on it. Spark plugs are $600. The jetta is lifetime timing chain no belt also they only replace the V belt in failure its lifetime as well.

Davemart

@JamesDo

Just so.

In Europe, the story is that the economics are better.
That is wholly dependent on fuel tax exemptions and other perks.

The underlying economics of any BEV with a decent range are lousy, and nor is that going to change drastically anytime soon, using anything remotely like current lithium ion batteries.

Folk have been sold a load of overpromoted hoey with the gross exagerations and wilful lies of the greatest salesman of the age taken as gospel truth.

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