Porsche tackles carbon emissions 'German Engineering' style

Porsche has teamed up with Volkswagen Group Innovation, its established e-fuels partner HIF Global and MAN Energy Solutions to combat climate change. 

True to German engineering, the consortium is studying further refinements to Direct-Air-Capture (DAC) to reduce emissions and remove carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the air. 

Capable of extracting highly purified CO₂ from the air, the Direct-Air-Capture technology is set to be a game changer in the fight against climate change

At the IAA Summit 2023 press conference on 4 September, the sports car manufacturer unveiled its plan to build an integrated DAC facility within the Haru Oni e-fuel pilot plant in Chile. It will serve as a prototype for Porsche and its partners to test drive commercially competitive DAC technology for CO₂ extraction.  

DAC distills CO₂ by running air through a pebble-like filter to cleanse it of large dirt particles. The process also drains out any by-products, such as water. The result is highly purified CO₂ that can be stored and used subsequently as a raw material. 

Porsche is optimistic about the practicality of DAC in the years to come. "We regard DAC as a viable technology for the future because it can be used for the production of many products in a sustainable manner," said Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board for Research and Development at Porsche AG. 

Pure CO₂ is used to make synthetic fuels or e-fuels, which allow internal combustion engine vehicles to operate almost completely carbon-neutral

Apart from applications in industrial processes, pure CO₂ is an ingredient for making synthetic fuels, also known as e-fuels. These fuels enable potentially carbon-neutral operation of internal combustion engine vehicles and offer a reasonable complement to electromobility. 

HIF Global has commenced industrial production of synthetic fuels since December 2022. For this reason, the Porsche-backed clean energy startup stands firmly behind carbon-neutral e-fuels as a proven solution for decarbonising the transport sector. DAC technology boasts scalability and the added versatility of operating anywhere as long as renewable energy is available to power it up. Blessed with high-speed winds that propel turbines at maximum capacity throughout the year, the south of Chile, which houses the Haru Oni plant, is almost a utopia for producing e-fuels. This sets Porsche's pioneering efforts in DAC technology to realise efficient and low-cost CO₂ capture on the highway to success.