Imagine the Future
The last time I was in Punta Arenas was in 2018 to do some hiking in Patagonia, one of the nicest places on Earth.
I was super excited when I heard a few weeks ago that Highly Innovative Fuels, a pioneering global e-fuels company, opened its first synthetic gasoline production facility in Punta Arenas.
At Intertek we are passionate about the future of our planet, and we do our utmost to help our clients reduce the CO2 footprint of their operations anywhere in the world.
In the final chapter of my book, Leadership with Soul, I cover sustainability at large and of course I mention where we are on the race to Net Zero on a global basis.
The news is not good unfortunately.
In my view, we will not achieve the Net Zero goals outlined by the Paris Agreement a few years ago unless we come up with major disruptive and breakthrough innovations to reduce CO2 emissions faster.
Synthetic fuels could be a disruptive and breakthrough innovation to help the world get to Net Zero.
Synthetic fuels are liquid fuels that have the same properties as fossil fuels, but their production process is better for the planet.
At Intertek in 2021, we supported Zero Petroleum in the UK to develop a fully synthetic aviation fuel and won the Guinness World Records’? award for the first aircraft powered by synthetic fuels.
The initiative in Punta Arenas is really exciting and here is how this breakthrough technology works:
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-?Wind-generated energy is used to produce hydrogen through electrolysis
-?A filtration system then captures and condenses CO2from the atmosphere
-?Using the synthesis process, the created hydrogen is combined with the CO2 captured to produce Methanol and then MTG technology is applied to produce eFuel, a carbon neutral fuel.
eFuel can be used without any modification for all industries, cars, planes and ships.
A typical car emits 4.6 MT of CO2per year on average and this technology would capture approximately the same amount of CO2to produce the required synthetic fuel for the car during a year.
Imagine the future if the technology pioneered in Punta Arenas could be scaled up and offered at an affordable price around the world.
Making all cars, planes, ships and factories carbon neutral would be of course the fastest way to Net Zero.
Stay tuned!