Mercedes doesn't want synthetic fuels. Excessive energy losses in the production process

In an interview with Autocar, Mercedes admitted that he wants to focus on electric drives. The production of synthetic fuels consumes too much energy - the best solution is to send it directly to batteries, according to a company representative.

Synthetic fuel - an advantage that has a disadvantage

Fuel derived from crude oil has a high specific energy per unit mass: for gasoline it is 12,9 kWh/kg, for diesel fuel it is 12,7 kWh/kg. For comparison, the best modern lithium-ion cells, the parameters of which are officially declared, offer up to 0,3 kWh / kg. Even if we take into account that on average 65 percent of the energy from gasoline is wasted as heat, out of 1 kilogram of gasoline, we have about 4,5 kWh of energy left to drive the wheels..

> CATL boasts of breaking the 0,3 kWh / kg barrier for lithium-ion cells

That's 15 times more than lithium-ion batteries..

The high energy density of fossil fuels is the bane of synthetic fuels. If gasoline is to be produced artificially, this energy must be fed into it in order to be stored in it. Markus Schaefer, Head of Research and Development at Mercedes, points this out: The production efficiency of synthetic fuels is low and losses in the process are high.

In his opinion, when we have a significant amount of energy, "it is best to use [to charge] the batteries."

Schaefer expects that the development of renewable energy sources could potentially enable us to produce synthetic fuels for the aviation industry. They will appear in cars much later, the representative of Mercedes adheres to the position that we will not see them in the automotive industry in the next ten years. That is why the company has focused on electric vehicles. (a source).

According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study for Germany, a complete replacement of combustion vehicles would require:

• an increase in energy production by 34 percent when replacing internal combustion vehicles with electric ones,
• increase in energy production by 66 percent when replacing internal combustion vehicles with hydrogen ones,
• 306 percent increase in energy production when combustion vehicles run on synthetic fuels instead of fuels derived from crude oil.

> How will energy demand increase when we switch to electricity? Hydrogen? Synthetic fuel? [PwC Germany data]

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