Chile begins operating first synthetic gasoline production plant

“This is a historic event. Here it is produced carbon neutral fuel. […] There is no other plant in the world that is capable of producing this production today”, said Chilean Economy Minister Nicolás Grau.

At the inauguration ceremony of the first “e-fuel” based on hydrogen, the Chilean Energy Minister, Diego Pardow, and executives from the companies HIF Global, Porsche, Enel Green Power and Siemens Energy also participated.

As part of the demonstration, which took place in the city of Punta Arenas, in the extreme south of the country, a Porsche 911 Carrera car was fueled with the synthetic fuel.

“It is a plant that, from wind, from water, from carbon capture, will produce fuel in the end, a fuel that is completely carbon neutral. We are very proud of Chile’s leadership in this matter,” added Grau.

“We are ushering in the birth of an industry; of an ecosystem that will take us into the 22nd century”, said César Norton, president of the company that owns the plant, HIF Global, who is of Chilean origin and developed the project. According to the company, the e-fuels are a solution to the climate changes.

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This “e-fuel” it is the result of a mixture of green hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2). The first is obtained from water through an electrolysis process (which separates hydrogen from oxygen) and which, in this case, uses electricity of wind origin, thanks to the strong winds of Chilean Patagonia. CO2 is captured from the environment through a filtration process.

The combination of both, through a synthesis process, generates methanol, from which gasoline is obtained that can be used in any vehicle.

It is worth remembering that green hydrogen is that produced with electricity from clean and renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectric, wind, solar and biomass, biogas, etc. That is, he is zero carbon: obtained without CO emissions₂.

Main works on the plant began in September 2021 and commercial operations of e-fuels start in March 2023.

HIF's bet is to have, within a decade, six plants around the world, supply 5 million cars and remove 12 million tons of CO2 per year from the atmosphere.

(with theFP)

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