E-fuel

E-fuel consortium will enable the production of sustainable fuels for transportation from CO₂ to increase energy self-sufficiency and to reach the low carbon society targets. A value chain from hydrogen produced by renewable electricity and captured CO₂ to paraffinic drop-in transportation fuels is developed in the E-fuel project. Electrofuels (e-fuels) are needed in addition to other options including direct electrification and biofuels to fulfil the transportation energy demand in future fossil-free world. However, the production of e-fuels has been unprofitable so far mainly due to high demand and price of renewable electricity. Therefore, new processes with higher efficiency than current concepts are needed.
The main objective of e-fuel project is to develop a concept and demonstrate production of drop-in e-fuels with high efficiency by integrating high temperature (HT) electrolysis and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. This developed concept will be demonstrated by applying bench scale units located in sea containers. Increased production efficiency will be obtained by developing HT electrolysis with 10-15%-point higher efficiencies than current commercial options and by advanced heat integration of the production units. Furthermore, carbon capture technologies and combined reverse water-gas shift technology as an alternative to co-electrolysis for synthesis gas production will be developed. In our concept, synthesis gas will be converted to paraffinic transportation fuels trough Fischer-Tropsch and upgrading steps. Usability, techno-economics and business opportunities of the produced fuels wil be evaluated in the project. The consortium consists of 8 SME companies: Convion, Elcogen, AW Energy, CarbonReUSe, ESL Shipping, Ineratec, Kleener and VG-shipping and 5 large companies: Neste, ABB, AGCO Power, Andritz and Helen. The export potential for Finland is estimated to be significant over 2,5 B€ year 2030. This project is part of the Neste&ABB Veturi.