In the south of Chile, very close to Punta Arenas and in the middle of Patagonia, Porsche implemented a very advanced plant called Haru Oni, where the German firm already continuously produces synthetic gasoline, e-Fuel or electronic fuel, which are the three names for an advanced product that works the same and has the same properties as gasoline derived from the oil refining process.
But, a difference of the latter, Porsche synthetic gasoline is obtained in a process in which there is no contamination. And it is that, as if it were an alchemist’s experiment, you just have to mix water and carbon dioxide to have a liquid that has 93 octane, like an international standard Extra gasoline and that can go into a car tank.
Broadly speaking, the process consists of taking ordinary water and through a process of hydrolysis, whose energy is obtained from wind turbines, is broken down into its two molecules, Hydrogen and Oxygen.
From this extract, the hydrogen is conducted through pipes that lead it to mix with the carbon dioxide or CO2 that the brand takes from the environment thanks to a kind of air vacuum cleaners that, also moved by wind-based electricity, make to ‘stick’ and this gas is recycled.
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Haru Oni Plant, Punta Arenas, Chile.
Both H2 and CO2 are combined inside special catalysts whose content is protected by trade secret.. The first part of the trick is that from there e-Methanol is obtained in a liquid state. The second part is that this e-Methanol then passes through other channels with equally unknown components that become the mixture in a 93 octane gasoline.
For now, this Porsche alchemy takes place in a space that is no bigger than two football fields and where pipes, towers, scaffolding and tanks are piled up and where the main protagonist is a solitary wind turbine that captures the strong winds of this point. end of the continent.
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Thus, this gasoline is classified as ‘carbon neutral’ because although it is put into the car’s engine it works the same as any other and also at the end of the exhaust pipe it produces emissions. The brand ensures that these emissions are subtracted from those that were avoided in production to result in a neutral process, zero or no pollution, when compared to what happens in both situations with normal gasoline.
With this liquid Porsche, and later Ferrari, seek to extend the useful life of combustion engines, alleging that with its massification and use the fumes from the exhausts would be balanced with those of the oil industry.
Haru Oni’s data
The Porsche plant in Chile required an investment of 74 million dollars and has an area of 5.7 hectares, of which at this moment only those corresponding to about two soccer fields are occupied.
There, the wind power plant, which has a rotor that is more than 9 meters high, has a capacity to generate 3.4 Megawatts, which is more than enough to meet the production of e-Fuel, as well as the rest of the operation’s tasks.
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The production capacity of ‘green’ Hydrogen after hydrolysis is 25 kilograms per hour and of ‘trapping’ 150 kilograms per hour of CO2 from the atmosphere or carbon dioxide, processes in which clean wind electric energy is used.
As for synthetic fuels at the end of production, Porsche’s Haru Oni plant produces 350 tons per year of e-Methanol and 130,000 liters per year of e-Fuel or synthetic gasoline whose production is for now intended only for Europe. .
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