Your opinion on decarbonizing our mobility ...
Where should we start? Which concepts can we combine and which approaches don't work at all? Support the debate or share good sources and studies. Many thanks.
A guest contribution by Bernhard Ahlers. Thanks a lot for this!
After Choren GmbH had taxed a good € 2009 million with its project for the production of synthetic fuel (BtL) in 300, Germany, according to our government, should become the world market leader for the production of solar systems. To achieve this goal, several hundred million euros were made available for the development and construction of production facilities. This dream had burst within a few years. Some manufacturers are bankrupt, Siemens and BP-Solar have closed their German locations, investors have lost their capital, and thousands of workers were on the streets. China took over the German end windings, not without glee, saved hundreds of millions in development costs and became what our politicians dreamed of; World market leader, with German tax money!
From 2015, a new possibility developed how to divert billions of taxpayers' money and distribute it to the poor German auto industry. With great media support, politicians announced like a prayer wheel that the future of the car will only work with an electric motor and that the combustion engine has long since had its day.
Automobile manufacturers such as VW, BMW and others have developed and built battery-operated electric cars. In addition to cars, delivery vans and even buses have developed with some success from expensive and underperforming niche solutions to mainstream vehicles with significant improvements in performance and range.
After the rural population began boycotting the further expansion of wind energy in the recent past, clever strategists in the wind lobby have influenced ignorant politicians and made them believe that Germany will be the leading one by 2030 Hydrogen nation must become. To achieve the goal, the expansion of wind turbines must be resumed as soon as possible. By 2030, a good 12 billion tax euros will be available for research into the Green hydrogen are available.
However, a BloombergNEF forecast shows that the market penetration of these electric or hydrogen vehicles beyond 2030 will remain only a relatively small proportion of the total fleet. Especially with heavy commercial vehicles. To achieve our greenhouse gas reduction goals and upcoming government and national emissions regulations, we need new solutions for road traffic and other highly polluting segments of the transportation sector, such as air, sea, and rail, where economic and performance-related traction is required clean fuels lagging critically.
The part of the transport sector that relies on heavy diesel engines is particularly difficult to decarbonize. According to the 2014 ICCT State of Clean Transport Policy report, heavy road vehicles worldwide emit 3 billion tons (GT) of CO annually2e from what is 34 percent of emissions from the transport sector and 8 percent of 38 Gt CO2e of global anthropogenic emissions. An overwhelming proportion of these emissions are generated by diesel-powered trucks that are used in intercity and long-distance traffic.
The challenge is to design the engine for a long-haul truck to minimize weight, refueling time and cost for long journeys while maximizing torque and other performance. Better engine performance means more reliable deliveries across different climates and terrain types, ensuring that the customers supplied receive their products on time.
Currently, the popular alternative to diesel is electric trucks. However, these are still decades away from being economically and practically competitive. On long journeys, converting the diesel truck to an electric battery with a similar capacity means an increase in weight of around 5.000 kg, which in turn means that five tons less freight can be carried per trip. When driving overland, electrically powered trucks require 5-10 charges compared to 1-2 refueling operations on diesel-powered trucks. Charging also takes much longer than filling a liquid fuel tank. In addition, electric trucks used in long-distance transport suffer from significantly higher costs and weather-related challenges, such as a lower battery capacity at low temperatures, compared to diesel vehicles.
Liquid fuels are still the best option for long-distance commercial transport, but conventional diesel fuel causes high climate costs in the form of emissions, not to mention NOx and particulate matter. The clean fuels that are best suited for long-distance transport are alcohol-based fuels such as bioethanol and methanol. Both are less harmful to the environment compared to petroleum-based diesel.
Large engine manufacturers such as Iveco or Scania have already invested in new technologies to decouple the diesel fuel from the diesel engine, such as diesel-like engines that can run on alcohol-based fuels. Performance and cost losses can be prevented and the strictest NOx, particle and CO2 emission standards can be met. It is expected that such technologies will be commercially available within a few years and that the advantages of diesel trucks in terms of optimized weight, frequency, duration and cost of refueling will be combined.
Another aspect for the future of long-distance truck transport is the infrastructure. The framework conditions for climate-friendly, alcohol-based fuels are significantly more advanced than the two alternatives e-mobility or hydrogen.
In addition, many fleet operators have a refueling infrastructure that is used by long-distance trucks. Climate-friendly alcohol-based fuels such as ethanol are also easy to transport and can be stored in conventional storage tanks that are currently used for petrol.
In contrast, the infrastructural challenges for e-trucks and hydrogen are enormous. It is difficult to predict the time horizon for the implementation and introduction of a cross-border, Europe-wide infrastructure for electric charging or hydrogen filling. Large-scale charging of long-haul electric trucks requires large charging stations that add additional stress (or require reserve storage) to the renewable energy load curves, and many locations may require additional sources of power generation and agreements with local and state regulators.
Similarly, hydrogen also poses major challenges. Transporting gaseous fuels is not an easy task, a major reason why the introduction of natural gas powered buses and trucks has been so disappointing, even with extremely low natural gas prices based on dollars per gallon equivalent. Building hydrogen transportation infrastructure is in the early stages of development and requires sustained, substantial momentum from companies and local and national governments around the world to develop robustly in the coming decades, with the use of green hydrogen in industrial and chemical application of use in the transport sector will compete.
And for climate change, speed is what matters most. We cannot wait decades for electrification and hydrogen-based technologies to be fully functional and economical alternatives; we have to start implementing innovative technologies that can make a difference earlier. Climate-friendly, alcohol-based fuels will improve the carbon footprint faster than e-mobility or hydrogen vehicles in the medium term.
It is also a naive simplification to assume that electricity, most alcoholic fuels or hydrogen are 100 percent clean today. Coal-fired power plants are still used to generate electricity, fossil natural gas is used to generate most hydrogen and many alcoholic fuels are often transported in combination with fossil-fueled machines. In fact, according to the IEA, it is expected that by 2050 only 50 percent of the EU network will be supplied from carbon-free sources (renewable energies and nuclear energy). These fuel sources are still considered climate-friendly alternatives because they fit into a low-carbon or carbon-free world as soon as the fossil fuels have disappeared from the power grids and other sources.
In addition to emissions, first generation alcoholic fuels also have an impact on land use. The opportunity costs of using land for the cultivation of raw materials are real and are carefully examined before use. However, we are optimistic that the technology has developed to grow food and fuel more sustainably and efficiently. Alcoholic fuels are ready to help tackle today's climate challenge. The manufacturers of alcoholic fuels have already responded to the demand for more sustainability of their products and are able to produce almost climate-neutral fuels. Some investors recognize the potential impact of using carbon-neutral alcoholic fuels to convert emissions from long-haul trucks and will therefore continue to fund innovations that are a step towards tackling our climate crisis.
Where should we start? Which concepts can we combine and which approaches don't work at all? Support the debate or share good sources and studies. Many thanks.
10 comments on “E-mobility, hydrogen or biofuels?”
Many thanks to Mr. Ahlers for this comprehensive guest article. This time to the three technological candidates for the energy transition in the mobility sector. A fair look at the strengths and weaknesses of e-mobility, hydrogen and biofuels (alcohols). As usual, critical and with an interesting perspective on past decades energy policy. Thank you also for the open indication of the conflicts (in the best case development potential), which show all three approaches across the entire value chain.
With all justified criticism of the alternatives, we must not forget that we need alternatives. You mentioned the problems of fossil diesel. Not only to finally break the lethargy in climate protection in the mobility sector, but also to be prepared for the post-fossil era. A direct policy approach that has been around for some time is the update of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). Some pressure can be built up here by further increasing the mandatory quotas for low-carbon fuels.
In the short and medium term, a colorful mix of second generation biofuels can cost-effectively reduce our carbon footprint in the mobility sector. In the long term, we can look forward to the strengths of e-mobility, green hydrogen (fuel cells) and third-generation biofuels.
Finally someone who reports on facts and not on fancies and wishful thinking.
The media should finally stop reporting only on lobbyists' interests, then we would reach the zero CO2 target by 2050 much faster.
Dr. Tanner
CH train
Basically, they are right. The production of rapeseed and grain, corn, food still have priority, or more on their side; Seaweed such as cyano bacteria can be used without restriction.
They have up to 43% lipids and 25% proteins. They will be doubled in 2 hours.
Regards
H. Moddemann
EUKLIT GmbH
Regarding H. Moddemann's contribution, it should be added that about 2 billion tons of grain, maize and co end up in the feed troughs of the meat industry every year. The usable share for animal fattening is just 10 to 12 percent. The majority (“rest”) pass through the digestive tract of the livestock uselessly. Over 78 percent of the ingredients, the layman speaks of waste, could thus be used to convert 660 billion liters of bioethanol and 520 million tons of biological carbon dioxide for the food industry. Yearly! Without additionally using a single square meter of agricultural area!
PS: The total European (EU 28) petrol and diesel consumption in 2019 was just under 350 billion liters.
Not to forget the huge amounts of methane (CH4), which result from the digestion of 2 billion tons of feed. The one that lingers in the atmosphere much longer Methane is many times more harmful to the climate than CO2 (GHG) . In addition, methane is the main energetic component of classic natural gas or biogas and is simply released into the atmosphere as a by-product when it is generated in the digestive tract.
We can reduce methane without any problems, we only have to do without meat, butter, cheese, milk, yoghurt, eggs, meat, shoes and the like.
Unfortunately, people don't want to miss hamburgers and Co. People in Germany alone eat 65 kg of meat / head / year.
13 million cattle, 6 million sheep, 25 million pigs and 120 million chickens are found in Germany alone and supply us with their products.
In short: abolishing cattle = much, much less methane = much better for the environment.
And when we run out of cattle, 60 percent of the agricultural land used today, which is used only for cattle as pasture and for the cultivation of animal feed, is available for growing food.
Sorry, we don't need more agricultural land for growing food. So much that the industrialized nations throw 20 billion tons into the trash every year.
And if we still manage not to throw away any more food and produce it for the garbage can, more agricultural land will become free and we will save tons of GHGs because there is no need for cultivation, transport, processing and storage. That would be a step in the right direction.
There is no other way than electrification to transport.
The manufacturers have long understood this and the broad market is following suit.
PS The BlombergNEF sees the share of electric cars by 2040 at over 60%.
No study can help against this, the alleged advantages of biofuels, nicely talked about.
Here the Source.
Here is the link to BloombergNEF and the Energy Outlook. As a bioenergy enthusiast, it's great to see that biogas in addition to fuel cells and CCS was added as a new category.
@time I think the article shows quite nicely that no technology is "glossed over", but rather constructive and open solution approaches are discussed.
I would like to ask Mr. TIME if he has any idea how much PV and wind energy still has to be built to "electrify the transport"?
In 2018, 198 TWh of "green electricity" was fed in, the energy consumption in road traffic was 710 TWh.
The fact that the manufacturers get involved in the market is also due to the enormous amount of funding they receive from us tax figures.
Studies really can't do anything nice, but basic math skills might help.
Tomorrow's traffic will be like a bouquet - there will be something for everyone and every application - and biofuels will be a flower in the bouquet. This flower may be a little smaller than the other flowers, but not less important. That is exactly why I recently founded a startup that supports transport companies in choosing the right flower. The choice is and will become increasingly difficult, especially in road freight transport. In addition to the classic diesel truck, gas truck (CNG, LNG), biogas truck (CBG, LBG), biofuel truck (bioethanol, HVO), electric truck, (electric) retrofit truck, Hybrid trucks and soon hydrogen trucks will be added. Uff, which truck should a transport company choose next - which one today, tomorrow and the day after? Depending on who you ask, you always get a different flowery answer.
Greetings AR from Camideos