Biofuels and e-fuels could mean a greener future for historic cars, but the change won’t happen overnight
WORDS SIMON HUCKNALL PHOTOGRAPHY JACK HARRISON/C&SC
Few topics have dominated the classic car industryʼs agenda in recent times more than the pressure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and the impact that doing so will have on owners and classic-related businesses alike.
Much of the debate has centred on politiciansʼ and the publicʼs perception of classic cars as high-polluting vehicles that are counter to the UK Governmentʼs pathway to net zero by 2050. This despite the average annual mileage of the 874,000 classic cars registered or on SORN in the UK (latest figures, from October 2022) being 1200 miles and representing a mere 0.22% of Britainʼs total transport emissions, according to a report by the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC).
Equally, there is a consensus around the industry that it should be making every effort to mitigate the effect of its carbon footprint, and one of the emerging key enablers is sustainable fuel. This can be separated into two main groups: biofuels, and synthetic or e-fuels. E-fuels are produced by extracting carbon dioxide and water from the environment. The water is split by electrolysis, making hydrogen, which is then synthesised with the carbon.
It sounds simple – and it relies on an infinite resource – but the development of the process is complex and still in its infancy. Bicester Heritage-based Zero, led by ex-Williams F1 CTO Paddy Lowe, is one company that is busy working on e-fuels and aiming for commercial-scale production by 2025. “Itʼll be more expensive than fossil fuel to start with,” said Lowe, speaking to Bicester Heritageʼs Whizz-Bang, “but we expect to see price parity within 10 years.”
Production of biofuels has progressed more rapidly, with availability today – albeit through very limited outlets. While first-generation biofuels were made from crops grown specifically for the task (and criticised by some for the land mass needed for their production), second-gen biofuels use agricultural food waste, such as sugar-beet tops, Brussels-sprout stalks or forestry waste, as a base ingredient to produce ethanol. As David Richardson from Coryton, which makes second-generation biofuel for classic and motorsport use, says: “If you can ferment it, you can make fuel out of it.” And since the base product is, for the most part, derived from crops that have already been grown, there is a significant saving in CO2 gene
