How CO₂ extracted from air could help keep petrol cars alive

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is just floating out there in the atmosphere and Porsche aims to use it in a bid to keep its high-performance petrol models alive.

In the face of ever-tightening antipollution laws, Porsche plans to fight global warming by extracting CO₂ from the atmosphere via direct air capture (DAC) at its synthetic e-fuels plant in Chile.

Porsche is drawing on the expertise of its partners, Volkswagen Group Innovation, e-fuels company HIF Global and MAN Energy Solutions to put DAC into economically viable series production.

It follows the European Commission’s recent drafting of a plan to allow sales of new cars with internal combustion engines (ICE) after 2035 if they run only on climate-neutral e-fuels. The proposal could offer a way for carmakers to keep selling ICE vehicles after 2035, the date when a planned EU law is set to ban the sale of new cars emitting CO₂.

EU countries and the European parliament agreed to the law in 2022, but in March Germany’s transport ministry lodged last-minute objections to it.

“DAC is an important new technology for the future — for energy extraction and particularly for the climate,” said Barbara Frenkel, executive board member for procurement at Porsche.

“Pure CO₂ can be used for industrial processes or permanently stored in the ground. It can also be used to produce e-fuels — which we are planning to do as a first step. These e-fuels are a useful complement to e-mobility, as there will still be many ICE vehicles on the road about the world for decades to come.”

Michael Steiner, board member for R&D at Porsche, said to slow global warming it is essential to reduce emissions and remove CO₂ from the atmosphere.

“At the same time, we need CO₂ as a raw material in many production processes. Why not combine the two? We’re working on that. We regard DAC as a viable technology for the future because it can be used to extract the carbon molecules required for the production of many products in a sustainable manner. So, we are working on bringing the technology to a higher degree of maturity,” he said.

Porsche said a major advantage of DAC technology is that CO₂ can be extracted anywhere that there is renewable energy available to operate it, and the technology is scalable.

The electricity for the filter system at the Haru ONI eFuels pilot plant could be generated using wind energy, so it would come from a renewable source. The required heat could be provided through the hydrogen generation process in the e-fuels plant.

“The Volkswagen Group identified extracting CO₂ from the atmosphere as an issue for the future back in 2019,” said Nikolai Ardey, director of Volkswagen Group Innovation.

“Since then, we have extensively studied the concept with regard to suitable technologies and economic viability with international partners in the research and industrial sectors. Our research has found that scalable and commercially competitive direct air capture technology is possible. Together with Porsche and other partners, we now want to build a prototype plant and test the concept as a whole.”

César Norton, CEO of HIF Global, said carbon-neutral e-fuels can be a real solution for decarbonising the transport sector.

“In pioneering direct air capture technology, that enables efficient and low-cost CO₂ capture, we are taking things a step further and make an active and timely contribution to fighting climate change.”

To extract CO₂ from the atmosphere, the ambient air is first cleansed of large dirt particles and directed through a pebble-like filter material. The CO₂ deposited there is extracted from the material and collected in a highly purified form for later use as a raw material. Water, a potential byproduct, is drained off.

The CO₂ extracted from the atmosphere can be used in different ways as part of a circular economy. Apart from being used to produce fully synthetic e-fuels, in the future it could be stored long term and used as a raw material in the production of nonfossil-based plastics.

In December 2022, e-fuels company HIF Global, in which Porsche holds an interest, started industrial production of synthetic fuels at the Haru ONI pilot plant in Punta Arenas, Chile.

Synthetic fuels enable potentially almost carbon-neutral operation of ICE vehicles when manufactured from wind energy, CO₂ and hydrogen extracted from water.

In the plant’s pilot phase, e-fuels production of up to 130,000l per year is planned. Initially, the fuel is to be used in what are known as “lighthouse projects”, such as in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup racing series and at Porsche Experience Centres.