A review of synthetic fuels for passenger vehicles
Open accessAbstract
Synthetic fuels produced with renewable surplus electricity depict an interesting solution for the decarbonization of mobility and transportation applications which are not suited for electrification. With the objective to compare various synthetic fuels, an analysis of all the energy conversion steps is conducted from the electricity source, i.e., wind-, solar-, or hydro-power, to the final application, i.e., a vehicle driving a certain number of miles. The investigated fuels are hydrogen, methane, methanol, dimethyl ether and Diesel. While their production process is analyzed based on literature, the usage of these fuels is analyzed based on chassis dynanometer measurement data of various EURO-6b passenger vehicles. Conventional and hybrid power-trains as well as various carbon dioxide sources are investigated in two scenarios. The first reference scenario considers market-ready technology only, while the second future scenario considers technology which is currently being developed in industry and assumed to be market-ready in near future. With the results derived in this study and with consideration of boundary conditions, i.e., availability of infrastructure, storage technology of gaseous fuels, energy density requirements, etc., the most energy efficient of the corresponding suitable synthetic fuels can be chosen.
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- Authors
- Hänggi, S., Elbert, P., Bütler, T., Cabalzar, U., Teske, S., Bach, C., & Onder, C.
- Affiliations
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Empa (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Hänggi, Severin
- Venue
- Energy Reports
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-11
- Volume
- 5
- Pages
- 555-569
- ISSN
- 2352-4847 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2945731516
- Cited by
- 146
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 4
- FWCI
- 5.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Energy Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DORA Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Econstor (Econstor) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- ETH Zürich Research Collection
- Funders
- Bundesamt für Umwelt
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Energy Engineering and Power Technology › Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems
- Physical Sciences › Chemical Engineering › Catalysis › Catalysts for Methane Reforming
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Technologies
- Keywords
- synthetic fuels, passenger cars, renewable electricity, hydrogen, methane, methanol, dimethyl ether, diesel fuel, energy efficiency, transport decarbonization, hybrid powertrain, carbon dioxide sources, wind energy, solar energy, hydropower, energy conversion, energy density
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