Audi promotes the development of tomorrow's synthetic fuels

The development of new technologies that replace today’s fossil fuels never stops. Electric cars, hybrids and plug-in hybrids, among others, are already present today.

Audi, for its part, is deeply involved in developing a new technology that starts from microorganisms to produce synthetic fuels. The research it has carried out shows that these fuels behave in the same way as conventional fuels.

Specifically, Audi e-diesel and Audi e-ethanol, are the two synthetic fuels, of which e-ethanol has been tested in production for a year now at the brand’s facilities in the United States.

According to Reiner Mangold, head of Sustainable Product Development at Audi, “e-diesel will follow the same production path as e-ethanol.” They have already shown that synthetic fuels can be produced, and they are now testing them thoroughly.

Audi’s studies show that at the moment of injection biofuels behave the same as conventional ones and, due to their chemical characteristics, generate fewer pollutants during combustion.

To test their efficiency and behavior, engineers work in a special test chamber, where they simulate engine conditions. Internal pressures of up to 15 bar and temperatures of 350 degrees Celsius are reached. A high-speed camera captures, frame by frame, the injection and combustion processes every 50 milliseconds.

The next task will be to develop the e-ethanol production process and optimize that of e-diesel. “Once this is solved, the new fuels will be ready to be commercialized, and producing several hundred thousand litres of liquid synthetic fuel per day will be no problem,” explains Sandra Novak, project manager.

Audi has partnered with Global Bioenergies, a French biotechnology company, to develop non-fossil fuels. In this way they support an innovative technology that can be used to produce renewable fuels.

Synthetic fuels are a very important part of Audi’s global e-fuels strategy. In fact, the brand’s e-gas plant in Werlte began feeding into the grid a few months ago. It is a synthetically produced gas whose process uses surplus electrical energy that could not otherwise be stored.

The Ingolstadt brand already has a research centre under way for the production of e-ethanol and e-diesel. Joule, a biotechnology company based in Bedford, Massachusetts, is the partner in charge of that centre.

Four elements are required for producing these new e-fuels: water, sunlight, CO2 and tailor-made microorganisms. The latter are single-celled organisms only about three thousandths of a millimetre in size.

Experts at the biotechnology company Joule have modified the photosynthesis process carried out by the microorganisms, so that they directly synthesize alkanes (important components of diesel fuel) or also ethanol from carbon dioxide. The fuels are separated from the water and purified.

Petroleum-derived diesel is a mixture of different hydrocarbon compounds, so it contains sulphur and aromatic compounds, the complete opposite of e-diesel, which has high purity and excellent ignition ease thanks to its high cetane number. It can also be blended with fossil diesel in unlimited proportions.

The collaboration between Audi and Joule began in 2011. The French company, with its know-how in fuel and engine testing and in preparing LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) balances, helps Audi engineers develop market-ready fuels, whose production could begin in the coming years.

This is undoubtedly a great step towards Sustainable Mobility.

Source | Audi