February 24, 2016
Audi Creates Fuel from Only Raw Materials
Mohini Verma
Department of Biology
Lake Forest College
Lake Forest, IL 60045
My generation pictures diesel with trucks, pollution, sickening smells, fossil fuels, ocean contamination, and ocean drilling. My generation knows that diesel is a major contributor to climate change and pictures a doomed future of fuel. Let me paint a new picture. A picture of an immensely promising future made available to us through new scientific breakthroughs. Let me tell you about Audi Corporation and its work on Blue Crude, a synthetic fuel with virtually no effect on the climate and tons of flexibility in terms of its use.
Blue Crude has almost no environmental impact. It does not contain sulfur or aromatic hydrocarbons (Audi, 2015). Sulfur is an air pollutant that is linked with respiratory dysfunctions, cardiovascular disease, and pulmonary defense changes (“Sulfur,” n.d.). The Sunfire plant itself operates using renewable energy sources (i.e. sun, wind, and water). According to Perry, synthetic fuels that don’t contain any sulfur or fossil fuels are about 70 percent efficient (2015). Manufacturing Blue Crude requires only raw materials, with oxygen as the individual by-product. Audi can potentially reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through this process. The first 5 liters were put into an Audi A8 3.0 TDI clean diesel Quattro and the car runs exquisitely (Audi, 2015).
Blue Crude requires only two materials: water and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is directly captured from the atmosphere via Climeworks; a company Audi has corporate partnership with for such purposes. The water is heated to 800 degrees Celsius to separate the molecules; a process known as electrolysis (Audi, 2015). Oxygen is released in the air as a by-product and the hydrogen is combined with carbon dioxide in a synthesis reactor to create Blue Crude. It can be refined to make e-diesel, making it universally applicable. If needed, e-diesel can be easily mixed with other fossil fuels due to its chemical properties (Audi, 2015).
The fuel is not going to be as expensive as it may seem. In fact, pricing is to be close to current diesel pricing in Germany and Europe. According to McSpadden (2015), the estimated cost is around 1-1.50 euros (1.14-1.70 US dollars), however the “actual figures are dependent on electricity prices.”
While this project only began a few years ago, tremendous progress has been made. In hopes to create a totally environmentally friendly fuel, Blue Crude could possibly reverse global warming from direct air capturing via Climeworks. Other companies are following this eco-friendly trend. Toyota has announced the 2016 Toyota Mirai that operates from a hydrogen fuel cell with water as the only by-product. Moreover, the Sunfire plant doesn’t use non-renewable resources for power generation, but rather renewable energy (i.e. solar, wind, hydro, etc.). In doing so, the plant is not emitting any harsh chemicals into the atmosphere. In fact, the only by-product of the Blue Crude manufacturing process is oxygen, which poses no harm to the atmosphere. Audi has taken a clean step towards the future with the possibility for all cars to thrive on e-diesel.