You know how carbon dioxide is a major contributor to global warming? Well, it seems that the wizards at Toyota will be extracting fuel from it. That’s right, Toyota is developing synthetic fuel which is made up of c02 and hydrogen. Known as Toyota synthetic fuel, it could reduce the carbon footprint nicely.
This is a bid by Toyota and Co to keep making IC engines. However, they’ll be achieving a greater amount of carbon neutrality in the process. These fuels are also known as e-fuels and they fall into the biofuel category. But the real question in all of this is – will the concept work?
What Is Synthetic Fuel?
This is any fuel that has been extracted from any form of biomass. The reason for the production of synthetic fuels is that they’re a cleaner substitute for your regular fossil fuels. That being said, it is not that they don’t release carbon dioxide on burning.
But they do promote the concept of carbon neutrality since they don’t add any more carbon in the atmosphere than the amount that was used to make them. In this way, the amount of carbon in the environment remains the same as it was before the combustion.
Toyota Synthetic Fuel
Let’s talk a bit about the salient features of this fuel. It is artificially produced from recycled carbon dioxide, which is recovered from the air. The other ingredient of this concoction is hydrogen, which is obtained from electrolysis. This uses electricity and electrolytes to separate hydrogen from water.
We know that Toyota isn’t too keen of the automotive world heading towards electrification. Its CEO has made that clear; plus, they’re also testing out hydrogen-powered cars so that they can be mass-produced one day. This is the main challenge for the company now.
Right now, Toyota is testing out these fuels the only way they know how – in their race cars. The Toyotas used in the Super Taikyu series (the GR86 and the Subaru BRZ) are using this fuel. This is similar to the Corolla H2 concept which is putting in hours of testing for combustible hydrogen fuel.
Toyota is a gamechanger which could certainly bring about a revolution in the automotive industry with this fuel. It already has a reputation for the easily available genuine Toyota parts supply, which you can find here: https://sts-global.com/toyota-parts.
Why Is Synthetic Fuel Better?
As mentioned above, they offer us more carbon neutrality than their fossil counterparts. But another advantage of these fuels is that carmakers don’t need to modify their engines in order to facilitate their usage. As a result, you don’t need to make any changes either.
That’s right, these fuels will run in your very own gas guzzling car. Plus, you won’t be adding any new carbon dioxides than there already were before. This applies to diesel engines as well. These fuels are currently pricier than gasoline but that should change in a while.
Overall, there shouldn’t be any differences in your routine if you go completely synthetic. This is because these fuels have quite the energy density. This means that they produce a good amount of energy when they’re burnt. So, you can expect a high efficiency and thus a lot of mileage after filling up.
Right now, the game plan of Toyota is as follows: the company plans on building and running the infrastructure required for the production of this fuel by 2030. Then, it plans on marketing its goodness for adoption. Then, in the 2040s, it aims for self-sustaining commercialization of these fuels.
What are the Negative Impacts of Synthetic Fuel?
It is a tad bit expensive to produce and it requires a lot of large-scale technologies in order to commercialize its production. There is also a lack of standards established for synthetic fuels. This can be a problem when you produce the fuel in one country and use it in another.
As of now, there are no negative impacts associated with the quality of this fuel. The only consideration is that electric cars are more efficient, more environmentally friendly and are cheaper to run. But alas, these cars are more expensive than ICE cars.
This is why we synthetic fuels are being developed. Automakers like Toyota want them to keep their ICEs alive for an extended amount of time. This fuel should keep the regular cars running until the world is ready to produce enough renewable energy to power all types of vehicles.
With the implementation of synthetic fuels, we can enjoy our gasoline cars for a couple of more decades.
