(Ambient) CO2 to fuels using Hydrogen

Current trend of the technology :

Strong R&D activity and business increasing

Active research and first emerging business

Work in progress

Decreasing R&D activity

E-fuels are synthetic fuels, resulting from the combination of ‘green or e-hydrogen’ produced by the electrolysis of water with renewable electricity and CO2 captured either from a concentrated source (e.g. flue gases from an industrial site) or from the air (via direct air capture, DAC). E-fuels also called PtX, include a broad range of molecules: e-methane, e-methanol, formic acid, e-jet fuel…

In Europe, more than 220 e-fuels research and demonstrator projects have either been developed, completed, or are currently being planned with a peak reached in 2018. Installed electrolyzer capacities are getting higher and higher, indicating that consolidation is taking place, as fewer projects are closer to commercialization. Projects involve a large amount of partners in order to meet significant investment costs to develop these industries. Technical demonstrators and systems integration are of major importance for integrating PtX into energy systems and qualifying the business model: processes are highly dependant on the costs of electricity for electrolysis and of CO2.

E-methanol: the e-CO2Met project at the Hydrogen Lab Leuna, North-C-Methanol…
E-methane: still at demonstrator phase with several megawatt scale pilots mainly based in Europe with Jupiter 1000, Methycentre, GRHYD, ZSW, Store & Go, Audi & Mann… ? Formic Acid: BASF (TRL 2)
E-jetfuel: Westküste 1000, Air to fuelsTM, Haru Oni (Siemens Energy)
DME: C2FUEL, ALIGN-CCUS, CO2FOKUS, TNO, GTI (membrane-based reactor)…