How much help will renewable fuels provide?

TALK about alternative fuels has intensified in recent months. With many industry leaders – particularly the German automotive giants – and governments showing concern that mandated moves by many legislatures to restrict new-car sales to electric-only might be too restrictive, in March, the EU drafted a plan for the sale of new vehicles powered by climate-neutral fuels to continue after 2035.

The big sticking point, currently, is cost. As it stands, products like these don’t come cheap; our Coryton fuel cost about two and a half times the price of an average litre of fuel, and we used 20 litres. But with plans to ramp up production, those figures will drop. This is something that can be done gradually, because the fuels can be mixed with existing fossil fuels to any proportion required.

The UK currently has 36 million combustionengined cars on its roads, producing a huge amount of carbon emissions. A 2019 Department of Transport study found that renewable fuel, while fundamentally still burning a liquid, can reduce carbon emissions by 83 per cent, due to in effect recycling carbon that is already in the air.

Unlike e-fuels made from green and captured hydrogen, they’re far less energy-intensive to make. While these fuels won’t actively cut carbon emissions, they can help neutralise them.

There’s potential for renewable fuel beyond the motor industry, too. Coryton is working with the aviation industry to provide cleaner fuels. Air travel currently makes up two per cent of carbon emissions globally.

Will these fuels replace EVs? No; they’re not meant to. But along with fully electric cars, they can form a part of a wider solution to cutting global carbon emissions.