Iberdrola Australia and Australia-based hydrogen developer ABEL Energy will build a green hydrogen and green methanol production plant at Bell Bay in northern Tasmania (Australia). The project, called Bell Bay Powerfuels, is backed by the Australian government and will involve an investment of €1.1 billion. The Bell Bay Powerfuels Project... Read more →

Ørsted’s Board of Directors has taken final investment decision (FID) on the 50,000 tonnes/year FlagshipONE e-methanol project. (Earlier post.) FlagshipONE will be Ørsted’s first commercial-scale Power-to-X facility and is an important step towards Ørsted’s ambition of taking a leading position in renewable hydrogen and green fuels. Reinforcing the commitment to... Read more →

E-Fuels company HIF Global, together with partners, authorities, and community representatives, celebrated the production of the first liters of synthetic gasoline at the Haru Oni Demonstration Plant in southern Chile. (Earlier post.) Haru Oni Demonstration Plant Chile’s Minister of Energy, Diego Pardow, headed the ceremony where a Porsche 911 was... Read more →

Allianz Capital Partners, on behalf of Allianz insurance companies, has signed an agreement to acquire a minority stake in Ren-Gas Oy, a green hydrogen and power-to-gas project developer based in Finland. Allianz will provide funding of €25 million to Ren-Gas to support the company’s project portfolio towards execution. Allianz will... Read more →

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have demonstrated a new technique, modeled after a metabolic process found in some bacteria, for converting CO2 into liquid acetate, a key ingredient in “liquid sunlight” or solar fuels produced through artificial photosynthesis. The work, reported in a paper in Nature Catalysis,... Read more →

SK Trading International (SKTI), a wholly owned subsidiary of SK Innovation, has closed a round of institutional funding into electrofuels developer Infinium. (Earlier post.) The investment will support acceleration of Infinium’s commercial developments globally. Infinium Electrofuels technology converts carbon dioxide waste and renewable power through its proprietary process to create... Read more →

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... Read more →

Electrofuels provider Infinium announced an agreement with Amazon to begin using Infinium Electrofuels in the retailer’s middle mile fleet as an ultra-low carbon alternative to traditional fossil fuels. The clean burning electrofuels will be produced for Amazon at one of the first electrofuels production facilities, located in Texas. Infinium Electrofuels,... Read more →

Argonne National Laboratory has published a new cradle-to-grave (C2G) lifecycle analysis (LCA) of US LDV vehicle-fuel pathways. The report was prepared by Argonne researchers and members of the US Drive Integrated Systems Analysis Technical Team. This analysis builds on a previous comprehensive life cycle analysis, updating that study’s 2016 assumptions... Read more →

Researchers in Europe led by a team from ETH Zurich have designed a fuel production system that uses water, CO2, and sunlight to produce aviation fuel. The team implemented the system at pilot-scale in the field to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the entire sun-to-liquid fuel process chain, from H2O... Read more →

E-fuels company HIF (Highly Innovative Fuels) Global has begun the development of Australia’s first large-scale, carbon-neutral eFuels production facility in Tasmania. HIF Asia Pacific, a wholly owned subsidiary of HIF Global, filed a Notice of Intent (NoI) with the Tasmanian Environment Protection Authority (EPA) seeking approval for the facility, which... Read more →

Carbon transformation company Twelve, Alaska Air Group, and Microsoft have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on advancing the market for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) to include fuels derived from recaptured CO2 and renewable energy, and working toward the first commercial demonstration flight in the United States powered... Read more →

Sundsvall Energi will partner with Liquid Wind to be the host and provide carbon dioxide for the second commercial-scale—100,000 t—electrofuel facility in Sweden. Biogenic carbon dioxide from the Sundsvall energy facility will be captured and combined with renewable hydrogen to generate green electrofuel, eMethanol. The fuel is intended for the... Read more →

The Danish Board of Business Development (Danmarks Erhvervsfremmebestyrelse) is granting up to DKK 88.8 million (US$12.6 million) to a partnership between Topsoe, Denmark’s Technical University (DTU) and Aarhus University (AU) to support innovation activities related to upscaling and globally deploying Topsoe’s Power-to-X SOEC electrolysis technology. Topsoe is to receive up... Read more →

Power-to-Liquids technologies are on their way to commercialization in scale. E-fuels offer a way to expand the carbon-neutral transport fuel pool beyond biomass-based renewable fuels to replace fossil fuels in existing internal combustion engines. The end product is a transportation fuel suited for aircraft, ships as well as heavy and... Read more →

The European Association for Emissions Control by Catalyst (AECC) presented its zero-impact emissions demonstrator car at the Vienna Motor Symposium, 27-29 April. The demonstrator reduces pollutant emissions across a wide range of driving conditions using advanced emission control technologies with an electrified combustion engine (48V mild hybrid). At the same... Read more →

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Infinium, an electrofuels company (earlier post). The agreement, which builds on MHI’s 2021 investment in Infinium (earlier post), will focus on exploring the deployment of Infinium’s proprietary electrofuels technology in the Japanese market. Infinium electrofuels are classified as ultra-low... Read more →

Mexico-based global construction materials company CEMEX is partnering with integrated chemicals and energy company Sasol ecoFT and renewable energy company ENERTRAG to combine CO2 with hydrogen to produce sustainable aviation fuel. This project is part of CEMEX’s Future in Action program to reduce its carbon footprint and contribute to a... Read more →

Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) and Seaborg signed a partnership agreement to develop floating nuclear power plants based on Seaborg’s inherently safe Compact Molten Salt Reactor (CMSR). The floating nuclear power plant comes as a turn-key product, ready to be moored at an industrial harbor. In the harbor, a transmission cable... Read more →

Porsche is investing US$75 million in HIF Global LLC, a holding company of internationally active project developers of eFuel production facilities. Among other projects, the Santiago de Chile-based company is building the Haru Oni eFuel pilot plant in Punta Arenas (Chile). (Earlier post.) Punta Arenas pilot plant under construction Initiated... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Group will collaborate with the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) jointly to research and develop an advanced fuel for an ultra lean-burn, spark-ignition engine that aims to lower the overall carbon dioxide emissions of a vehicle. Hyundai Motor Group... Read more →

In support of the Danish initiative to promote the production and development of green e-methanol (earlier post), Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (Geely Holding) is partnering with Circle K Denmark, Aalborg University, and Fonden Green Hub Denmark to collaborate on a 15-month test and demonstration trial for green e-methanol fuel and... Read more →

The Danish developer of renewable energy European Energy and Denmark’s largest inland port, Port of Aalborg, signed a letter of intent that secures European Energy an option for a 25-hectare area at the Eastern Port in Aalborg, which is planned to be the location for a new electrolysis plant with... Read more →

Electrofuels innovator Infinium (earlier post) has entered into a strategic alliance with US independent energy company Denbury to collaborate on developing ultra-low carbon electrofuels projects in the state of Texas. Infinium electrofuels facilities being developed in Brazoria County will convert renewable power into green hydrogen and combine it with industrial-sourced... Read more →

Infinium, an electrofuels company, is partnering with ENGIE to develop a facility that will produce ultra-low carbon Infinium electrofuels at scale for the local transportation industry. The new Reuze project includes the development of one of Europe’s largest announced CO2 conversion hubs, located in France, which will enable the conversion... Read more →

Researchers at MIT have identified, quantified, and modeled a major reason for the poor performance of electroreduction processes to convert CO2 to fuel or other useful chemicals. The findings could spur progress on developing a variety of materials and designs for electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion systems. A paper on their... Read more →

E-fuels are made by combining green hydrogen with CO2 to produce liquid fuel that can be similar to gasoline or diesel used in conventional engines (as well as kerosene used in aviation). Proponents claim that if renewable electricity is used and CO2 is captured from the air, then the e-gasoline... Read more →

The electrocatalytic conversion of CO2 using renewable energy could establish a climate-neutral, artificial carbon cycle. Excess energy produced by photovoltaics and wind energy could be stored through the electrocatalytic production of fuels from CO2. These could then be burned as needed. Conversion into liquid fuels would be advantageous because they... Read more →

Carbon transformation company Twelve (formerly Opus 12, earlier post) has produced the first fossil-free jet fuel—called E-Jet—from CO2 electrolysis, demonstrating a scalable, energy-efficient path to the de-fossilization of global aviation. This project was supported through funding from the US Air Force (USAF), and produced fuel globally applicable for both commercial... Read more →

Maersk Growth has made a leading venture investment in Prometheus Fuels, a Silicon Valley-based startup with a promising direct air capture-technology to enable cost efficient, carbon neutral eFuels for shipping (earlier post). The minority investment in Prometheus Fuels will support A.P. Moller - Maersk’s work to execute on the strategy... Read more →

Porsche and Siemens Energy have joined forces with a number of international companies to build an industrial plant for the production of nearly CO₂-neutral fuel (eFuel) in Punta Arenas, Chile. A pilot plant is initially being built north of Punta Arenas in Chilean Patagonia, which is expected to produce around... Read more →

In the first quarter of 2024, A.P. Moller - Maersk will introduce the first in a series of eight large ocean-going container vessels capable of being operated on carbon-neutral methanol. The vessels will be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and have a nominal capacity of approx. 16,000 containers (Twenty... Read more →

Tenneco is putting its 100-plus years of powertrain expertise in improving vehicle fuel efficiency and reducing emissions to work to explore synthetic fuels (e-fuels) as a viable near-term solution to further maximize the efficiency and minimize the carbon footprint of internal combustion engines (ICE). Tenneco’s Powertrain business group is partnering... Read more →

Rolls-Royce Power Systems has outlined its road map for climate neutrality: Net Zero@Power Systems. By 2030, the Rolls-Royce business unit is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 35% compared to its 2019 level through the use of new net zero and zero carbon technologies. This near-term target plays a significant... Read more →

A study by researchers at RWTH Aachen University in Germany has found that synthetic dimethoxymethane (DMM) is not only a promising fuel or blend component because of its outstanding combustion characteristics, but that it could be very attractive from a production point of view as well. In an open-access paper... Read more →

Liquid Wind has closed its Series A funding round, securing €4M in equity investment. Investors in the eMethanol facility developer include Alfa Laval, Carbon Clean, Falkor, Haldor Topsoe, Siemens Energy and Uniper. The investment will be used for the development of Liquid Wind’s first eMethanol production facility, and support plans... Read more →

The Liquid Wind consortium in Sweden has selected Worley to provide basic engineering services for one of the world’s first commercial-scale eMethanol facilities. Worley is a leading supplier of engineering, procurement and construction services and will support designing a facility concept that can be efficiently replicated to establish 500 eMethanol... Read more →

Aker Solutions has signed a contract with Nordic Blue Crude (NBC) for front-end engineering and design (FEED) of a new e-Fuel facility at Herøya in Porsgrunn, Norway. The e-Fuel plant is planned to produce CO2-neutral fuel by using green hydrogen and furnace gas from an existing factory. The FEED work... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) released a new report, Hybrid Energy Systems: Opportunities for Coordinated Research, highlighting innovative opportunities to spur joint research on hybrid energy systems (HES). These opportunities could drive the production of valuable fuels, chemicals, and products, provide greater cost savings, increase grid flexibility, and enhance... Read more →

Carbon Clean, a developer of low-cost carbon capture technology, has entered into an agreement with power-to-fuels developer Liquid Wind. Carbon Clean’s technology will capture biogenic carbon dioxide emissions from a local industrial site. Within the Liquid Wind facility, the CO2 will then be combined with renewable hydrogen to form the... Read more →

ExxonMobil and Porsche are testing advanced biofuels and renewable, lower-carbon eFuels as part of a new agreement to find pathways toward potential future consumer adoption. The first iteration of Esso Renewable Racing Fuel is a blend of primarily advanced biofuels and is specially formulated by ExxonMobil’s in-house team of scientists... Read more →

Neste, the world’s leading producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel, has joined the eFuel Alliance, an interest group dedicated to the industrial production of synthetic fuels based on hydrogen and CO2 from renewable sources. The eFuel Alliance is based in Berlin and Brussels and brings together companies and... Read more →

A new boron-copper catalyst for the conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into chemicals or fuels has been developed by researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the University of Duisburg-Essen. They optimized already available copper catalysts to improve their selectivity and long-term stability. The results are described by the team led by... Read more →

by Mike Millikin A team at Argonne National Laboratory’s Systems Assessment Center has evaluated the well-to-wheel (WTW) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of Fischer–Tropsch (FT) fuels produced via various electrolytic H2 pathways and CO2 sources; using various process designs (i.e., with and without H2 recycle); and two different system boundaries: a... Read more →

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and partner institute Empa have started a joint research initiative called SynFuels. The goal is to develop a process for producing kerosene from carbond dioxide and green hydrogen. Over the next three years, the two Swiss research institutes will jointly search for practical... Read more →

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has released a comprehensive vision for deeply decarbonizing transportation. It is a strategy rooted in cross-cutting research and engineering to enable industry stakeholders, communities, government agencies, and early adopters to meet their climate goals. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, greenhouse gas... Read more →

A two-year Finnish electrofuels (E-fuel) research project aims to integrate hydrogen production through high-temperature electrolysis using a solid oxide electrolyzer cell (SOEC) with carbon dioxide sequestration and Fischer-Tropsch fuel synthesis. Coordinated by VTT, the E-fuel research project, which is connected with the Neste Veturi Ecosystem, received €3.3 million in funding... Read more →