A strong alliance for eFuels –
climate-neutral liquid fuels
Made from renewable energy sources and atmospheric CO2.
Replacing conventional liquid fuels.
Usable in all vehicles and heaters for liquid energy sources.
Opening up the huge international potential of renewable energies worldwide.
The fight against climate change is a global challenge and therefore requires global solutions. The eFuel Alliance is on board with the EU climate protection targets for 2050 and wants to actively support the transition to sustainable, modern and competitive economies in the EU. In order to achieve the ambitious climate protection goals and successfully advance the energy transition, technological innovation is vital, and that can only be guaranteed by a genuine openness to technology. It must be possible to deploy these technological solutions throughout the EU, but also in regions beyond Europe, regardless of their economic power, geography or technical requirements.
Synthetic liquid fuels, called eFuels, are just such a solution. They are the climate-neutral alternative to conventional liquid fuels and are excellently suited to reducing CO2 emissions in transport and the heating market. eFuels can achieve greenhouse gas reduction effectively and affordably – right up to climate neutrality.
The current figures for means of transport around the world – as well as for the heating market in the EU – are as follows:
Throughout the world, more than 1.3 billion vehicles are currently powered by conventional internal combustion engines. In addition, there are around 22,000 aircraft and 50,000 ships worldwide for which there is no sensible technical alternative in sight. These existing fleets will continue to form the basis for mobility in the coming decades. They will continue to grow worldwide and generate extra traffic. Moreover, around 20 million heating systems in the EU alone operate with conventional liquid fuels. Given this reality, the sustainable solution for climate protection is to use carbon-neutral fuels. Europe’s transition to sustainable electricity has been achieved by making the generation process climate neutral.
The electricity produced remains the same. Likewise, we can have a climate-neutral effect across the existing vehicle fleet by changing the energy source, rather than the infrastructure. eFuels are a solution for all vehicles and means of transport, both now and in the future. eFuels are actually sustainable in two ways: Firstly, they are produced from renewable electricity and release only as much CO2 as was previously captured for the production of eFuels. Secondly, they can be used as liquid fuels in existing vehicles and infrastructures, including the global filling station network. The production of eFuels is also necessary in order to allow the chemical industry to operate in a climate-neutral manner.
A CO2-neutral alternative to conventional energy carriers, eFuels make a decisive contribution to the global energy transition – by satisfying demand through renewable energy sources. To make eFuels, the following is required: electricity from renewable energy sources such as the sun or wind; water to produce hydrogen through electrolysis processes; and CO2, which is extracted from the atmosphere. Because eFuels are produced by synthesising hydrogen and carbon, they are called synthetic liquid fuels.
For these synthetic energy sources to be used on a global scale, industrial production is required. Sunny and windy areas with the potential for yielding large volumes of renewable energy are particularly good locations to produce hydrogen and hydrogen-based derivative products such as eFuels in a cost-effective way. Production costs can thus be significantly reduced, allowing eFuels to establish themselves as affordable climate-neutral energy carriers for a wide range of applications such as road, air and shipping traffic, the heating market and the chemical industry.
eFuels can make a decisive contribution to achieving the 2050 climate targets:
The eFuel Alliance is committed to expanding eFuel production capacity around the globe, and to promoting its broad application. Our goals are to have eFuels recognised as an essential element of European climate protection policy and have them treated on an equal level with other climate protection technologies. The aim is to shape the regulatory framework at the national and European level so that eFuels can make a significant contribution to climate protection.
We promote international cooperation to establish the role of synthetic fuels worldwide. We are an interest group committed to the industrial production of hydrogen-based synthetic liquid fuels using the Power-to-X process. The alliance is open to companies, associations and individuals, including those in the petroleum trade and the petroleum industry, the automotive and automotive supplier industry, mechanical and plant construction, research and science, the aviation and maritime industry, the chemical industry, the energy production and generation sector and, of course, the employee and employer representatives from these areas.
We are committed to the climate protection targets for 2050 that were internationally agreed upon in 2015 and see eFuels as a vital way to achieve these targets. eFuels can help satisfy a demand for mobility that is certain to grow. They can be used to move the goods that a growing population will consume. And they help to make the rising energy needs of the future truly sustainable.
This is where you’ll find the latest news about eFuels –
both from the eFuel Alliance and from the media.