Fuelling the Future: Opportunities for CO2, H2 in E-fuels and SAF

The call for action on liquid fuels was resounding! The passion and conviction of speakers at our joint event ‘Fuelling the Future: Opportunities for H2 and CO2 in e-fuels and SAF’ with Hydrogen Scotland and Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage on 24 June in Edinburgh was reflected in the request to government for a Clean Fuels Mission in parallel with the Clean Power Mission, that focusses on liquid fuels rather than electricity.

More than a third of fossil fuel use (Ref. ONS data) is liquid fuels for road haulage; aviation; shipping; rural and agricultural transport and space heating; back-up, industrial and remote power generation. The targets set for SAF uptake and maritime decarbonisation are supportive initiatives but policy needs to take a whole system approach across the economy and across government – there is no carbon price offset mechanism for synthetic fuel use within power generation or energy intensive industries.

The opportunities are huge for Scotland, we have:
🌳 the feedstocks (biomass, biogenic CO2 and H2)
💨 the renewable energy (over 50 GW of onshore and offshore wind is planned across Scotland) with the added incentive of curtailed and / or stranded renewables, and
👷‍♀️ the skills and expertise from the oil and gas, and chemicals industries.

The challenges lie in scaling up hydrogen production, capture and aggregation of biogenic CO2 and private line access to renewable energy – and in joined-up policy moving at pace.

Many thanks to our chairs, panellists and speakers:
Dr Philippa Parmiter, Decarb Scotland
Terry Shevlin, Transport Scotland
Donna Sutherland, Veri Energy
Kim McCann, Protium
Ivan Cupull, The Scottish Government
Jonathan Simpson, Scottish Enterprise
Nick Stapley, RWE
Dr. Naveed Akhtar, C.Eng., MIET, Hy-Hybrid Energy
Tim Dumenil, Net Zero Technology Centre
Dr. Ignacio Tudela-Montes, The University of Edinburgh
Ben Stevenson, Black & Veatch