A review of synthetic fuels for passenger vehicles

Synthetic fuels produced with renewable surplus electricity depict an interesting solution for the decarbonization of mobility and transportation applications which are not suited for electrification. With the objective to compare various synthetic fuels, an analysis of all the energy conversion steps is conducted from the electricity source, i.e., wind-, solar-, or hydro-power, to the final application, i.e., a vehicle driving a certain number of miles. The investigated fuels are hydrogen, methane, methanol, dimethyl ether and Diesel. While their production process is analyzed based on literature, the usage of these fuels is analyzed based on chassis dynanometer measurement data of various EURO-6b passenger vehicles.