By Sebastian Verhelst The talk will be covering the current challenges for transport, the alternatives we have and how they com-pare, and conclude with the speaker’s personal opin-ion on the most attractive alternative.

1. 1VAB Technologiedag, 19/09/2014
Sebastian Verhelst, Faculteit Ingenieurswetenschappen en Architectuur, UGent

2. The car of the future
Electric, but not as you might think!
Prof. Sebastian Verhelst
Green Drive Project Conference.
Tomorrow’s Vehicles: Challenges for Industry and University
Green Drive Project Conference, Antwerp, 23/09/2016
Sebastian Verhelst, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University

3. 1973
2003
Gb
oil consumption
oil discovery
Year 3
Orders of magnitude 2010
15 terawatt (15.1012W)
1 billion vehicles

4. • Which energy source?
• Transport:
o Which energy carrier?
o Which powerplant?
Criteria:
• Sustainable
• Scalable

5. 7 TW
14 TW
7 TW
44 TW
72 TW
85.000
TW

6. H2

7. H2
?

8. H2
?

9. ?
H2
Internal combustion engine
• Cheap to produce:
oEasy to produce
oFrom abundantly available,
recyclable materials
oRelatively little energy
needed for production
• Fuel flexible
• High power density
• Still potential for efficiency
improvement

10. Energy density is crucial!
10
liquid
gas
Green Drive Project Conference, Antwerp, 23/09/2016
Sebastian Verhelst, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University

11. Energy density: illustration
11
60 kg gasoline
+ 40 kg alcohol
+ 100 kg hydrogen
+ 800 kg batteries
1300 kg
Green Drive Project Conference, Antwerp, 23/09/2016
Sebastian Verhelst, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University

12. Liquids: distribution and storage easier
12
€ 250 € 10.000 € 25.000
Green Drive Project Conference, Antwerp, 23/09/2016
Sebastian Verhelst, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University

13. Long term options for energy carrier and powertrain
for transportation?
Minimum set of criteria:
‣ Sustainability: closed cycle for energy carrier and
powertrain materials
‣ Scalability: resources for energy carrier and powertrain
‣ Compact: need sufficient energy & power density
13Green Drive Project Conference, Antwerp, 23/09/2016
Sebastian Verhelst, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University

14. Conclusions for sustainable transportation
Energy carrier:
• Need for renewable (solar), liquid fuels
‣ Efficient, so practical and cheap distribution and storage
Powertrain:
• Internal combustion engine
‣ Sustainable technology
‣ Best bang (h) for your buck!
14Green Drive Project Conference, Antwerp, 23/09/2016
Sebastian Verhelst, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University

15. Candidate fuels
• Simple molecules are preferred
‣ Production is more efficient
‣ Conversion (end-use) can be controlled more easily (h, emissions)
• Abundantly available building blocks: C, H, O, N, …
• Thus, most simple fuels:
‣ Hydrogen, H2 (at patm, liquid at 20K)
‣ Methane, CH4 (at patm, liquid at 91K)
‣ Ammonia, NH3 (at Tatm, liquid at 8.6 bar)
‣ Methanol, CH3OH (liquid)
‣ Dimethylether (DME), CH3OCH3 (liquid at 5.3 bar)
‣ …
LIQUIDS
15Green Drive Project Conference, Antwerp, 23/09/2016
Sebastian Verhelst, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University

16. Case: methanol
• Can be produced in different ways
‣ Biomass, fossil fuels
‣ Synthesize using renewable energy: H2 + CO/CO2  CH3OH
• Liquid
‣ Cheap tanks, cheap distribution
‣ Miscible with gasoline and ethanol
‣ Evolution of infrastructure possible
• High engine efficiencies possible
• Also building block for synthetic hydrocarbons (MTO)
 Has been a focus for UGent since 2009
16Green Drive Project Conference, Antwerp, 23/09/2016
Sebastian Verhelst, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University

17. How can we introduce methanol as a fuel?
• Most successful biofuel presently: bio-ethanol
• Which is being used:
‣ Mixed into gasoline, in low concentrations (E5, E10)
‣ In high concentrations (E85) in “flex-fuel vehicles” (FFVs)
• EtOH lion share of the ~4% share of biofuels in transport,
~40M FFVs worldwide
• MeOH miscible with gasoline and EtOH
• Hypothesis  gasoline-EtOH-MeOH
blends with identical properties to E85
(GEM blends)  can be used by FFVs
17Green Drive Project Conference, Antwerp, 23/09/2016
Sebastian Verhelst, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University

18. 18
CH3OH
n(-CH2-)
Transport
Liquid
Storage
PowerElectricity
H2
H2O
CH4
CO2
Gas
Storage
Heat
Waste
Heat
…And this can be brought into play quickly using
GEM blends in existing E85/gasoline flex-fuel vehicles
“Renewable Power Methane”,
now supported by Audi as E-gas;
however, vehicle fuel tanks still expensive
because CH4 is not a liquid…
Massive storage of renewable
energy makes investment in it
viable
An integrated system

19. Conclusions & additional remarks
• Internal combustion engines (ICEs) far from being “fully
developed” with regards to efficiency (i.e. fuel consumption,
CO2) and emissions
‣ Lab: 57% efficiency with near-zero emissions
• + advantage: “flex-fuel”, cheap
 ICE is sustainable technology!
“Keep the engine, change the fuel”
 towards synthetic fuels, sustainable&scalable, “e-fuels” –
“solar fuels” – “liquid electricity” + support with fuels from
waste and biomass where this can be done sustainable
19Green Drive Project Conference, Antwerp, 23/09/2016
Sebastian Verhelst, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University

20. Thanks for listening!
http://users.ugent.be/~sverhels
sebastian.verhelst@UGent.be
Green Drive Project Conference, Antwerp, 23/09/2016
Sebastian Verhelst, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University