Electrofuel

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (February 2024) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:E-Fuel]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|E-Fuel}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Electrofuels, also known as e-fuels, are a class of synthetic fuels which function as drop-in replacement fuels for internal combustion engines. They are manufactured using captured carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, together with hydrogen obtained from water split.^[1] Electrolysis is possible with both traditional fossil fuel energy sources, as well as low-carbon electricity sources such as wind, solar and nuclear power.^{[2]: 7 [3]}

The process uses carbon dioxide in manufacturing and releases around the same amount of carbon dioxide into the air when the fuel is burned, for an overall low carbon footprint. Electrofuels are thus an option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transport, particularly for long-distance freight, marine, and air transport.^{[2]: 9–13}

The primary targets are methanol, and diesel, but include other alcohols and carbon-containing gases such as methane and butane.