Abstract
Keywords - SunFuel, CCS, biofuel, BtL, second generation
Oil is the locomotive that drives the world´s economies today. As we all know, within the foreseeable future it will no longer be possible to produce oil at today´s cost levels.
In the long term, Volkswagen sees the electric vehicle powered by fuel cells or batteries as a highly promising complement to internal combustion engine. Before that can happen, however, there are technical, economic and logistical problems to be resolved. But we also need a solution that we can implement faster - a solution that will help us make a timely contribution to sustainable mobility in the near future.
Consequently, Volkswagen´s fuel strategy is based on the diversification of raw materials and not of fuels. The idea is to use a range of different raw materials to produce fuels that can then be distributed via existing filling stations and used in existing vehicles. Given the overarching aim of reducing carbon dioxide emissions from road traffic and the ongoing tightening of emissions legislation, Volkswagen is promoting the more widespread use of CO2-neutral energy sources. In particular biomass to produce biofuels of the second generation, which we call SunFuel®. They will reduce CO2 emissions up to 90% without competing with the food supply.
In future, not only will fuels be endowed with specific properties, but these "designer fuels" as SunFuel® will also become an influential factor in the engine development process. This will open the door to new combustion mode engines as Volkswagen`s CCS® engine, combining the advantage of the Diesel and the Otto combustion process, i.e. ultra low emissions together with low fuel consumption. Thus our fuel strategy is set to become a powertrain and fuel strategy.