FÓRMULA 1

Meet the synthetic gasoline developed in F1

Formula 1 (F1) is the pinnacle of motor sport. Some prefer the times when their engines had 10 or 12 cylinders and they screamed loudly with a sound that came to mind weeks after the race we had seen. But the truth is that even today's small 1.6 V6 turbo engines, aided by two electric motors, are capable of surprising energy efficiency, as they can transform 50% of the available energy in fuel into power. This when the best engine in the series has difficulty reaching 30%…
Because when you are at the top when it comes to technology, you need to keep moving forward to avoid falling behind, US competition leader Chase Carey has announced that the new goal is to reduce CO2 emissions from the world's most mechanics. sophisticated in the world. And there are only two ways to reduce carbon dioxide: either by cutting consumption, which would also reduce horsepower, or by using a different, non-fossil, carbon neutral fuel.

What is synthetic fuel?
Synthetic gasoline is the holy grail of fuels. Unlike the 'normal', extracted from the underground of any country, mostly Arab, is produced in the laboratory. All gasolines (and they vary according to the origin of the crude that is refined to give them) are composed of a molecule with 6 to 12 carbon atoms, as many hydrogen (actually n + 2), and residues of sulfur, nitrogen, impurities and everything else that should not exist in gasoline as it only serves to generate acid rain, NOx and particles during burning.

When making gasoline synthetically, the fuel does not include the components it does not need. But the most important progress has to do with the origin of the carbon used in fuel production. It is not yet known what the solution advocated by F1 officials, but if they are looking for a more environmentally friendly fuel, then what makes sense is to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, thus combating global warming and climate change. And if the energy to be used in this process came from renewable sources, then we had a hydrogen extracted from water and a CO2 taken from the air, which after burning would return to the air, being neutral and not increasing the percentage that exists in the atmosphere - in fact, the ultimate goal.

Will F1 be less fast?
None of it. Synthetic fuels can have the same energy as fossils, meaning they can generate the same power when burned on the same engine. At the limit, engines can even work better. A little like the synthetic lubricants that F1 also use, which are not derived from petroleum, which does not prevent them from playing their role perfectly.
Regardless of the engines to be proven in the coming years, F1 is determined that by 2021 the motors of the racing cars will be more sustainable, thus reacting to those accusing the premier discipline of motor sport of not having the slightest concern. environmental. In fact, so did Formula E, which, despite using battery-powered electric motors, was obliged to ensure that the energy it recharged from the batteries had an environmentally-friendly source.

What will the driver gain from this?
Very! Synthetic fuels can have a bright future, as long as they are serious about their large-scale production. By 2030, as a result of Brussels' commitments, 30% of vehicles are expected to be electric, which means that 70% will continue to use petrol or diesel engines, although most will certainly be helped by hybrid or hybrid solutions. plug-in. Imagine now that all of those 70% of vehicles that will be sold in 10 years, many of them certainly hybrids or plug-in hybrids, could burn synthetic, carbon-neutral fuels that no longer added one gram of CO2 to the atmosphere.
F1 teams have the best engineers in the world - this and a mind-boggling budget! If we put them together, it is more likely that technicians will be able to evolve synthetic fuels faster than many would think possible.

At the moment synthetic gasoline and diesel are already being manufactured at several universities, in collaboration with some manufacturers, and the one in which Audi is involved is well known. F1's involvement in this project would do wonders for advances in technology, much like turbochargers, valve control systems, injection systems, and everything else that has made the engines of ordinary vehicles move so rapidly through the latter. decades.
Bosch anticipates that this solution "could prevent the release of another 2.8 gigatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere between 2025 and 2050", while estimating that manufacturing costs will tend to fall as production increases in a similar move to generation. of energy through photovoltaic cells. It is recalled that in 2000 they were expensive, when world production was around 4 gigawatts, becoming substantially more affordable from 2017, when they surpassed 227 GW.

Autonews