#e fuels

Information about the person

In another very exciting interview from our Zoomposium theme blog “Energy and Climate”, Axel and I talk this time with the German professor Christian Breyer for Electrical Engineering in the Department of Energy Systems at the Lappeenranta University of Technology LUT in Finland.

He studied Business Administration at the VWA Kempten in 1999 and obtained a Bachelor equivalent degree. In 2006 he completed his M.Sc., Dipl.-Phys. and in 2007 his M.Sc., Dipl.-Ing., Clausthal University of Technology at Clausthal University of Technology. This was followed by a Dr.-Ing. at the University of Kassel in 2012. In 2014, he was appointed to the Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland, where he has held a chair in “Solar Economics” since 2018.

I came across Christian Breyer during my research on the topic of “renewable energies” because I was looking into the possibilities of substituting fossil fuels with hydrogen or “E-fuels” in preparation for my chemistry class. Furthermore, I wanted to ask a competent expert about the possibilities of “alternative energy generation and storage” in connection with our “Energy and Climate” blog.

In our joint interview, Christian Breyer called this the “global Pearl Harbor effect”, that humanity and the entire nations are finally waking up and realizing that they are already in a “state of war with nature” and do not have to wait for the further, coming effects.

In this context, people always like to talk about “5 before 12”, although “5 after 12” would be more realistic. This has nothing to do with “doom and gloom” or “pessimism”, but is simply a call to finally make use of the technological possibilities that allow for a “fully sustainable energy supply, taking into account the sustainability and climate goals”.

More at: https://philosophies.de/index.php/2024/11/08/5-nach-12-beim-klima/

The automotive industry is steadily moving away from fossil fuels, and a firm global consensus has emerged that battery electric vehicles are the way forward. Yet that consensus took a knock in March when the EU – to the shock of energy experts, environmental campaigners and much of the car industry – opened a small back door to e-fuels.

E-fuels are likely to find a small niche at most, experts predict. In their way stand fundamental constraints of physics, which would require even more green energy. They are made in stages: first by splitting water using electricity to create hydrogen, and then combining it with carbon from CO2 in a process that requires high pressure and a catalyst. Every stage wastes some energy, and all the electricity used must be zero-carbon.

“You’re basically trying to unburn petrol,” said Michael Liebreich, a consultant on clean energy technologies. “You need an insane amount of solar to do that.”

One big problem with the e-fuel dream is actually finding the stuff. There are no plants producing it at scale in the world. Nevertheless, some companies have spotted an opportunity.

Zero Petroleum, which will produce e-fuels on a small scale at its Bicester test factory, was founded by Nilay Shah, a professor of process systems engineering at Imperial College London, with Paddy Lowe, a former technical director at the Formula One teams McLaren and Mercedes, and ex-chief technical officer at Williams.