(Cologne) – Synthetic fuels made from green electricity can be used as liquid energy sources in combustion engines in a climate-neutral manner. According to a report by the German Economic Institute (IW), an annual added value of 80 billion euros and 1,2 million new jobs could be created in Europe through the production and export of systems for generating electricity-based synthetic energy sources (Power-to-X). . Representatives of the energy industry are calling on national and European legislators to create suitable framework conditions for the ramp-up of PtX technology.
Supplying the existing vehicle fleet
According to those commissioning the study, a key advantage of synthetic fuels is that they can supply the current vehicle fleet via existing delivery and transport infrastructures. The production of synthetic fuels requires extensive investments in systems for generating renewable electricity and converting it into liquid energy sources. These include, for example, electrolysers for the production of hydrogen, synthesis plants for the production of synthetic liquid fuels or methane, and plants for the production of CO2. Both European system manufacturers and economic regions in windy and sunny locations would benefit from this. “If the political framework is designed to be open to the various options for climate-neutral technologies, an end consumer price of between 2050 euros and 1,38 euros for a liter of synthetic diesel fuel appears possible by 2,17,” say the authors.
Both European system manufacturers and local business locations could benefit from investments in electrolysers and conversion systems to produce synthetic energy sources from renewable electricity. Although the global market for electrolyzers for producing hydrogen has doubled in the last 20 years, most of the growth has so far taken place outside Europe. Therefore, “the corresponding investments must be made as soon as possible,” says the IW study.
Associations want “suitable political framework conditions”
In order to encourage investment in the ramp-up of PtX technology, associations in the energy and petroleum industries are particularly calling for “the creation of suitable political framework conditions”. These included, among other things, the creditability of climate-neutral fuels in the EU's CO2 fleet limits and the redesign of energy taxation in the transport sector. The clients of the report are the IWO Institute for Heat and Mobility eV, the MEW Mittelständische Energiewirtschaft Deutschland eV and UNITI Federal Association of Medium-sized Petroleum Companies eV
“Synthetic fuels: potential for Europe – climate protection and value creation effects of ramping up the production of climate-friendly liquid energy sources” (Manuel Fritsch, Thomas Puls, Thilo Schaefer), free to download as a PDF (47 pages).
Link to the IW report
https://www.iwkoeln.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Studien/Gutachten/PDF/2021/Gutachten-Synthetische_Kraftstoffe_Europa.pdf
deep link
https://www.iwkoeln.de/studien/gutachten/beitrag/manuel-fritsch-thomas-puls-thilo-schaefer-klimaschutz-und-wertschoepfungseffekte-eines-hochlaufs-der-herstellung-klimafreundlicher-fluessiger-energietraeger.html
Photos
The energy and petroleum industries are demanding that synthetic fuels also be promoted. / © European Union
