The Future of Energy: Synthetic Fuels vs Electric Vehicles

We spent the last two weeks exploring synthetic fuels, their development through history, and where we are now. But for such a promising industry, in which direction it heads in the future is of vital importance.

Since synthetic fuels are an innovative industry at its current stage, most of the innovation is occurring in topics we’ve already discussed in the previous two pieces, such as nanotech, electrofuels, alternative feedstocks, and chemical reaction catalyst innovation. So we’ll dive straight into which countries are actively pursuing synthetic fuel projects.

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Who Is Pursuing R&D In Synthetic Fuels

· Germany – Through its Power-to-X initiative, Germany has been a key player in synthetic fuel research and development. Especially those projects that will use renewable energy sources to produce synthetic fuels.

· United States – California has set ambitious targets for using sustainable aviation fuels among others.

· Norway – Working in electrofuels and power-to-liquid technologies. The use of hydropower or natural gas in the creation of synthetic fuels will be well suited to Norway and its diverse energy production structure.

· China – Aims to use coal-to-liquids and coal-to-gas technologies to reduce emissions but still utilize its large coal deposits.

· Netherlands – Another country that has stated its aims with synthetic aviation fuels.

· UAE – One oil-rich nation that is actively seeking to diversify its energy portfolio, the UAE has invested in synthetic fuel projects. They are also actively pursuing nuclear power plants at Barakah, with three reactors operating currently. These were built in partnership with a South Korean consortium.

Photo by ZQ Lee on Unsplash

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EVs, the Automobile Industry, and Global Trade

Transport is approximately 20% of global CO2 emissions. 75% of this comes from road transport.

Road transport includes cars, motorcycles, buses, taxis, trucks, and lorries, as seen in the graphic above. This is a large chunk of emissions that need addressing and reducing.

This is one aspect of our capitalist world that consumerism has clasped its greedy hands around. On a personal level, how many vehicles do we need? And how big do we need them to be?