Synthetic Fuels: Plan B

"Synthetic diesel substitutes are also to be sold in Germany in the future. However, national regulations do not change the combustion ban from Brussels.

Exercise books, screws, fuel: Anything sold in Germany has to meet a standard. That makes sense for diesel and petrol, because drivers want to be able to rely on the fact that a visit to the gas station does not end with major engine damage. Nevertheless, the desire to deal with the details of fuel standards is not pronounced.

A traffic light parties (ruling coalition) benefit from this, they can claim to have paved the way for the sale of synthetic fuels in their pure form. That is not factually correct, because the sale of synthetic fuels was never prohibited. Rather, the tenth ordinance for the implementation of the Federal Emmission Control Act – repeat it correctly – should be adapted so that diesel substitutes according to the DIN EN 15940 standard may also be served. Although it ignites somewhat more easily than petroleum-based diesel and also has a slightly lower energy content per liter, many manufacturers have already approved it for diesel cars. So far, it has not been produced on the basis of green hydrogen and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but from plant residues, often from the cake that remains in palm oil production.

There are other, more sustainable ways to the climate-neutral combustion engine, as in the F.A.Z. described several times. At least technically, because even German regulations do not change anything about the actual ban on combustion engines from Brussels. If you want to create a plan B for resource-intensive electromobility, you have to move away from CO2 measurement at the exhaust pipe and towards a holistic view of the energy chain."