Porsche And Siemens Energy Break Ground On Low-Carbon E-Fuel Plant In Chile

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. The ground-breaking ceremony for this project took place in Chile and the pilot plant is initially being built north of Punta Arenas in Chilean Patagonia. It 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 necessary environmental permits have now been obtained by the Chilean project company Highly Innovative Fuels (HIF). Siemens Energy has also already started preparatory work for the next major commercial phase of the project.

Porsche initiated the demonstration project and will be using the eFuels in its own combustion engine vehicles. Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board for Research and Development at Porsche AG, said "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."

The Haru Oni project takes advantage of the perfect climatic conditions for wind energy in Magallanes province in southern Chile  

In the first step, electrolysers split water into oxygen and green hydrogen using wind power. CO2 is then filtered from the air and combined with the green hydrogen to produce synthetic methanol, which in turn is converted into eFuel. The pilot plant is scheduled to start production in mid-2022

Chile has set itself ambitious targets as part of its National Green Hydrogen Strategy. It plans an electrolyser capacity of 5 gigawatts (GW) by 2025, rising to 25 GW by 2030. The aim is to produce the world's cheapest hydrogen and develop the country into a leading exporter of green hydrogen and its derivatives.