Audi, together with the companies Ineratec and Energiedienst, plans to build a pilot plant in Switzerland to research and produce e-diesel, a synthetic fuel that allows the engine to have “almost neutral” emissions, as the brand itself has ensured.

The three companies will present in a few weeks the request to install the plant in Laufenburg (Switzerland) and its construction will begin in early 2018, explained the German automaker.

The energy needed for the production of this fuel will be supplied by hydroelectric energy and, once the plant is underway, will have an approximate capacity of 400,000 liters per year.

What is the e-diesel?

For the production of e-diesel, the plant will convert surplus hydroelectric power into synthetic fuel through the chemical process of electrolysis, Audi has explained.
This chemical principle allows, in a first phase, to generate green energy in the hydroelectric power station (hydrogen and oxygen in the water).
Subsequently, a “microprocessing technology” is used for hydrogen to react with CO2 (obtained from the atmosphere or biological waste gases) and to form long-chain hydrocarbon compounds.

This process results in, on the one hand, e-diesel and, on the other, waxes that are used in other areas of the industry.

The brand of the four rings investigates for a few years the production of “climate-friendly” fuels, such as e-gas, e-gasoline or the aforementioned e-diesel.

This will be the brand’s second association in a pilot project to investigate “the power-liquid principle”, since since 2014 it has been working together with the Sunfire energy technology corporation in Dresden (Germany).

There, Sunfire is exploring the manufacture of e-diesel using the previous principle, but applying other different technologies.

Audi’s other ‘e-fuel’ projects include its own gas power facility in Werlte (Germany), which manufactures e-gas (synthetic methane) for the A3, A4 and A5 models of its g-tron range.
The automaker of Ingolstadt is also investigating the manufacture of e-gasoline together with other partners.

EFE 8/11/2017 – 14:51 THE CONFIDENTIAL (Translation Soft)