e-fuels. Prospects in production and use

Webinar 5.10.2021

(full video – language: english – duration: 3:10:20)

Photos of the event

Sala Consiglio – Department of Energy – Politecnico di Milano + live streaming

Agenda

15:00 - 15:10
Opening – presentation of the project Energy for Motion
Speaker: Alessandra Beretta – Politecnico di Milano
Content: She presents the framework within which the conference has been organised, illustrating details of Energy for Motion project
15:10 - 15:30
Overview on e-fuels from a system perspective
Speaker: Matteo C. Romano – Politecnico di Milano
Content: He focuses his speech on carbon-based synthetic fuels produced from captured CO2 and hydrogen from electrolysis.
15:30 - 15:50
e-fuels in an O&G company energy transition perspective
Speaker: Stefano Rossini – ENI
Content: He claims the importance of e-fuels as key-role player in the energy scenario in 2050, giving an overview on H2, biofuels and CO2 circular economy
15:50 - 16:10
The key-role of catalysis in the synthesis of e-fuels
Speaker: Carlo Giorgio Visconti – Politecnico di Milano
Content: He stresses the importance of the catalytic knowledge in the synthesis of e-fuels
16:30 - 16:50
Synthesis routes for carbon-based climate neutral fuels: pilot activities
Speakers: Galina Skorikova – TNO
Content: She introduces the issues they are targeting to solve and pilot plants installation projects
16:50 - 17:10
e-fuels for clean and highly efficient internal combustion engines
Speakers: Tommaso Lucchini – Politecnico di Milano
Content: He gives an overview of the potential of application of e-fuels in internal combustion engines
17:10 - 17:30
use of e-fuels: ICE potential for Heavy-duty applications
Speakers: Gilles Hardy – CNH Industrial
Content: He discusses about the improvements in the utilisation of DME instead of diesel in heavy-duty vehicles
17:30 - 18:00
panel discussion
moderated by Alessandra Beretta
Content: She collects the most inspiring questions from the attendees, and through these questions she develops a discussion with the authors of the contributions of the conference

Opening – presentation of the project Energy for Motion

Speaker: Alessandra Beretta – Politecnico di Milano

(video of the single speech)

Summary: Energy for Motion is a big departimental project dealing with the study of the production of innovative fuels, the improvement of energy efficiency, the development of aftertreatment technologies for ICE vehicles and solutions for vehicles electrification.
The five-year project is funded by Ministry of Education, University and Research. The financial support has been devoted to the recruiting of young researchers, improvement of laboratorial equipment and teaching activities.
The research progresses are monitored by a board of industrial and academic advisors who offer different perspectives concerning the topic of mobility.

Overview on e-fuels from a system perspective

Speaker: Matteo Carmelo Romano – Politecnico di Milano

(video of the single speech)

Summary: Role of e-fuels in energy transition is analysed through the main aspects of energy efficiency, environmental impact and economics.
From energy efficiency considerations, schemes involving CO2 coming from combustion of a fuel to produce e-fuels should be avoided.
Low carbon electricity should be of course preferred in order to avoid CO2 emissions higher than the recycled CO2. In the short term, higher environmental benefits could be obtained using the scarce renewable electricity available for other purposes than e-fuels synthesis. Also, from an economic perspective, competitivity of e-fuels mostly depends on green hydrogen price.
At the end a case study of production of methanol that can be combined to an electrolysis unit is illustrated. It derives that the number of operative hours of the enhanced system with electrolysis depends on the breakeven price of electricity versus the selling price of the final product.

e-fuels in an O&G company energy transition perspective

Speaker: Stefano Rossini – ENI

(video of the single speech)

Summary: Oil and Gas company has the responsibility to define the pathway towards climate change mitigation. In the decarbonisation strategy, e-fuels play a crucial role as part of the CCUS (Carbon dioxide Capture & Utilization or Storage) scenario within the Energy Transition context.
Data from the IEA (International Energy Agency) studies show that in the mix of total energy supply the fossil fuels are expected to decline at the advantage of other kinds of sources. When considering CO2 as a raw material, it is necessary to evaluate how long the carbon dioxide molecule is retained in the product into which has been converted. Also energy efficiency is fundamental, since the emitted CO2 in the production of a material must be lower than the CO2 used as a raw material itself.

The key-role of catalysis in the synthesis of e-fuels

Speaker: Carlo Giorgio Visconti – Politecnico di Milano

(video of the single speech)

Summary: The powerful role of catalysis is firstly highlighted in the acceleration of the electrolysis of water into hydrogen, which is the basic element of all the e-fuels. The synthesis of e-fuels requires the coupling of hydrogen to a low cost (N2) or negative cost (CO2) raw material, the former extracted from air and the latter from flue gases. The attention is particularly focused on the most innovative e-fuels: ammonia, methanol and Fisher Tropsch jet fuels (a family of fuels identical to naphta, kerosene, diesel and base oil). For the presented e-fuels, the advantages in their utilisation are shown, and the criticalities concerning the involving of catalysis are considered. The differences in the production process of e-fuels with respect to the equivalent fossil ones are pointed out.
An overview of the announcements for commercial developments of e-fuels productive plants in the next few years is also given.
Within the energy transition, all e-fuels will contribute to meet specific requirements, but to make them really competitive, it is fundamental to optimize conversion processes of hydrogen: heterogeneous catalysis plays a key role in this aspect.

Synthesis routes for carbon-based climate neutral fuels: pilot activities

Speakers: Galina Skorikova – TNO

(video of the single speech)

Summary: Eng. Skorikova presents the main features of her company, which develops technologies in collaboration with research organisations and follows the scaling up with business partners.
Nowadays transport sector implies 32% of the European energy consumption, and in the past 30 years GHG emissions have grown by 10%, so the transition towards sustainable fuels is urgent. Both bio-based fuels and e-fuels rely on hydrogen, which is expensive and scarce, so maximization of its conversion is crucial.
Among all the different fuels, a particular focus is put on Methanol and DME (Dimethyl Ether), pointing out their advantages and applications.
The key-expertise of TNO company is described: the sorption enhancement process, dealing with removal of water from the CO2 hydrogenation reaction environment in order to increase molar fraction of products.
A quick description of the main aspects of projects run by TNO around Methanol and DME is finally given.

e-fuels for clean and highly efficient internal combustion engines

Speakers: Tommaso Lucchini – Politecnico di Milano

(video of the single speech)

Summary: The “Fit-for-55” package sets limitations in the mobility sector emissions in order to meet the reduction target of net 55% compared to 1990 levels, in order to achieve the full decarbonisation by 2050. A valuable strategy could be, rather than only battery electric vehicles, an optimal mix between hybrid electric, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles to reduce CO2 emissions from passengers cars. E-fuels represents a solution for decarbonisation of mobility sector.
The advantages and drawbacks of a group of selected e-fuels are discussed, with major attention on the challenges in the application in already available engine technologies.
The most recent developments about engine technologies exploiting e-fuels are described, by highlighting the relevant function of Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations in the study of combustion technology.

use of e-fuels: ICE potential for Heavy-duty applications

Speaker: Gilles Hardy – CNH Industrial

(video of the single speech)

Summary: A general review about “well-to-wheel” analysis of different categories of commercial vehicles is showed. The interesting thermo-physical properties of the fuel DME (Dimethyl Ether) are described in comparison to diesel.
It follows the presentation of a project which deals with the rebuilding of a heavy-duty diesel base engine in order to test it with DME. Then results of the tests in terms of analysis of exhaust emissions are discussed.
According to the evidences of the results, DME can be selected as an ideal compression ignition fuel.

panel discussion

moderated by Alessandra Beretta

(video of the single speech)

Summary: The debate starts by considering the relative weight of the role of e-fuels in mobility and chemical industry. The difficulty of setting a definite border between energy vectors and fuels is highlighted.
The economical, social aspects and of course legislation updates are ruling the pathways in the research of new technologies. Engines improvement research cannot be decoupled from the development of new fuels.
In view of short term zero net carbon emissions, hydrogen seems to be the perfect solution, but the drawbacks in transportation, high costs and low energy density must be faced.
At the end the distance from the effective penetration of e-fuels in everyday life is discussed, according to the perceptions of the authors.