Haru Oni efuels pilot plant in Punta Arenas, Chile 2023
Porsche's $100 million Investment In
Alternative Fuels
March 27, 2023
It only took five seconds ...
The opening ceremony of the new Haru Oni eFuels plant in Chile, saw a Gentian Blue Porsche 911 being filled with the nearly carbon-neutral new fuel by Barbara Frenkel of Porsche AG.
And five seconds later, the 911 was in a little drift …
At its wheel was Michael Steiner, Executive Board Member responsible for research and development.
The 1st drift had been performed using Haru Oni's new eFuel.
HOW THE eFUEL IS PRODUCED
Situated just outside Punta Arenas, in a spot where wind turbines run at peak efficiency, the Haru Oni plant makes eFuel by splitting water into its constituent components of hydrogen and oxygen in the first step. It releases the latter into the atmosphere, in the words of one of the engineers in Chile, “like a synthetic tree” and then combines the hydrogen with CO₂ that would otherwise be in the atmosphere to methanol. A final process then turns that methanol into gasoline.
Porsche AG executive board members: Michael Steiner & Barbara Frenkel
While Porsche is still very much committed to electromobility, and to selling more than 80 per cent of its cars with an all-electric drivetrain in 2030, many of the Porsche cars produced over the years are still on the road.
The type of fuel that this pilot plant is producing
will enable those cars’ ICE engines to run long into the future
without the need to burn fossil fuels in them.
The end game is to ensure there's a carbon-neutral fuel that can power the 70 percent of all Porsches ever built that are still on the road long after the new-car fleet is fully electrified.
Haru Oni is a symbol of hope in the fight against climate change, for a more sustainable future – and one that might also feature the music of a Porsche engine.
