Oldtimer: Synfuels soon on offer as an alternative
HIGHLY CLIMATE TARGETS Synthetic fuels must help to achieve the ambitious climate targets. Amag and Empa are investigating whether they can be used in existing combustion engines without any problems.
While it is now undisputed that the future of passenger propulsion will be battery electric, it will be many years before the global fleet is converted.
According to a study by the SHVF (Swiss Historic Vehicle Federation), there are also around 156,000 veteran vehicles and many youngtimers registered in Switzerland that will continue to rely on liquid fuels in the future. For these vehicles, synthetic fuels are a good solution for CO2 reduction.
Clean clarification is a prerequisite
An investigation by Empa Dübendorf in cooperation with the Amag Group is now to clarify whether such fuels can be used without problems in the engines of vintage cars.
Christian Bach, who is responsible for this series of tests at Empa, says: "In theory, there is nothing to prevent older cars being able to run on the new fuel in the long term. However, without clean clarifications on this, the new gasoline would hardly be used in the sometimes expensive vehicles."
Focus on classic cars as a cultural asset
Dino Graf, who is responsible for the historic vehicle collection at Amag, says: "Synthetic fuel is the solution to ensuring that the cultural asset of classic cars can continue to be moved in the future. That's one of the reasons why Amag has also taken a stake in the Swiss company Synhelion, which plans to produce Solarfuel in industrial quantities very soon."
The Amag-Empa trial will start in the summer and last one year.
