Porsche & Siemens Join Forces For Synthetic Fuel Project – Plant Construction Begins
Porsche and Siemens Energy have joined forces (with a number of international companies) to build an industrial plant for the production of an almost carbon-neutral fuel (eFuel) in Punta Arenas, Chile.
CO2 and green hydrogen are combined to produce synthetic methanol, which is then converted to the eFuel.
Prior to that, electrolysers split water into oxygen and green hydrogen using wind power, making the process virtually carbon neutral.
The plant is part of Chilean company, Highly Innovative Fuels (HIF)’s “Haru Oni” project which aims to use Chile’s strong winds in the Magallanes region to generate climate-neutral fuel.
HIF is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the project, owned by Chilean power company, AME.
They will build the world’s first integrated, commercial, industrial-scale hydrogen plant for making synthetic climate-neutral fuels.
The Punta Arenas pilot plant is expected to produce around 130,000 litres of eFuels in 2022.
The capacity will then be expanded in two stages to around 55 million litres by 2024, and around 550 million litres by 2026.
The parties involved in the Haru Oni project are:
| HIF | Owner and lead developer of Haru Oni Project |
| Porsche | Co-founder and offtake of the fuel |
| Siemens energy | Supplier and system integrator wind energy through electrolysis to production of fuel |
| Enel Green Power | Co-founder, focus on wind power and electrolysis |
| Exxonmobil | Contributor of MTG technology |
| ENAP | Infrastructure, logistics, and service provider |
| Empresas Gasco | R&D and product development of liquified gas (eLG) |
| German federal ministry of economics and technology | Support and funding |
Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board for Research and Development at Porsche AG, says: “Porsche was founded with pioneering spirit. That’s what drives us, we thrive on innovation. We also see ourselves as pioneers when it comes to renewable fuels, and we want to drive development forward. This fits in with our clear overall sustainability strategy. It means that Porsche as a whole can be net CO2 neutral as early as 2030.
Fuels produced with renewable energy can make a contribution to this. Our icon, the 911, is particularly suited to the use of eFuels. But so are our much-loved historic vehicles, because around 70 per cent of all Porsche sports cars ever built are still on the road today. Our tests with renewable fuels are going very successfully. eFuels will make it possible to reduce fossil CO2 emissions in combustion engines by up to 90 per cent. Among other things, we’ll be using the first fuel from Chile in our Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup racing cars from 2022.”
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