Audi Launches Synthetic Fuels Pilot Plant

German car manufacturer Audi has been active in the development of CO2-neutral, synthetic fuels and their latest project is a pilot plant in Dresden that will produce diesel from water, CO2 and green electricity. Audi and its project partners Climeworks and Sunfire opened the plant last week.

The Sunfire plant will only require carbon dioxide, water and electricity as raw materials. The carbon dioxide is extracted directly from the ambient air via direct air capturing, a technology developed by Swiss partner Climeworks. An electrolysis unit then splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, and combines the hydrogen with the captured carbon dioxide to produce the hydrocarbon compound, Blue Crude.

The pilot plant can produce approximately 160 liters of Blue Crude per day and nearly 80 percent of that can be converted into synthetic diesel.