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Audi makes clean fuel breakthrough

May 25, 2015

The fuel is synthetically produced without the use of petroleum. – AFP/Relaxnews pic, May 25, 2015.German carmaker Audi has started producing its first quantities of e-benzin, a synthetic fuel that can be used like traditional petrol but without the harmful sulphur or hydrocarbon emissions.

While a host of automotive experts have declared electricity as the fuel of the car's future with hybrids being used as a stop gap to wean drivers off their fossil-fuel focused dependence while the next generation of extended range batteries are prepared for mass market, Audi is hedging its bets.

It may have been one of the first premium car makers to bring hybrids and plug-in electric vehicles to its range but it has also been developing a suite of synthetic e-fuels that behave like traditional petrol or diesel, but that burn without releasing sulphur or aromatic hydrocarbons and with little if any CO2 emissions.

In April it announced that it, alongside its technical partners, had successfully created an e-diesel made from water and carbon dioxide. Since the beginning of May, a factory in Dresden has been producing 160 litres of the fuel a day.

Less than three weeks later, Audi is now claiming to have achieved another significant breakthrough, a cleaner alternative to petrol – e-benzin.

Synthetically produced without any petroleum it is extremely high-grade and therefore suitable for use in serious performance or seriously efficient cars as both use engines that run with a high compression ratio. However, it can just as easily be added to a traditional fossil fuel to dilute its negative impact on the environment.

However, unlike its e-diesel, Audi's e-benzin, which is being developed in partnership with Global Bioenergies, cannot yet be created without the use of biomass – think biofuels created from rapeseed, sunflower oil or corn. However, the total elimination of biomass in the production process is the next step, at which point the fuel will be created using water, hydrogen and carbon dioxide and sunlight.

Reiner Mangold, head of sustainable product development at Audi AG, described the initial achievement, announced on Friday as "a big step" in the company's e-fuels strategy. "Global Bioenergies has demonstrated the viability of the Audi ‘e-benzin' production process," he said.

Audi is confident that it can achieve its next target of producing a biomass-free version of the fuel before the end of 2016 and will now begin laboratory and engine tests on e-benzin. – AFP/Relaxnews, May 25, 2015.