A new fuel has made its appearance and promises a lower environmental footprint and compatibility with current internal combustion engines, without requiring conversions.
Although the car industry is accelerating the transition to electricity, internal combustion engines will continue to circulate for many more years. For this reason, oil companies invest in alternative fuels that can reduce carbon dioxide emissionsWithout the driver having to change his car.
In this context, the Spanish Repsol began to install in selected pumps with a characteristic pink colour through which the new Nexa 95 petrol is available, a 100% renewable fuel which according to the company is fully compatible with modern gasoline and motorcycle engines. Of course it is not the company's first attempt in this direction, since it already has the renewable diesel Nexa oil.
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Unlike conventional fuels produced from fossil raw materials, renewable fuels come from biomass, organic waste and other non-fossil sources. Their chemical composition, however, is equivalent to that of gasoline and oil used today, which means they can be used in existing engines without any conversion at all.
In fact, renewable fuels can already be to be made available through the existing station network, using the same supply infrastructure. This is their most important advantage, since no changes are required either in vehicles or in the way of refueling.
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It is currently available at approximately 30 Repsol stations in Spain, with the company planning the gradual expansion of its distribution network in the following yearsIts price is approximately 9 minutes of euros per litre higher than that of conventional unleaded petrol 95 octane.
At the same time, Repsol announced the launch of a pilot project in collaboration with Toyota, BMW and Bosch. For a period of six months, approximately 20 vehicles of the two manufacturers will be powered exclusively with the new renewable petrol to assess its operation in real traffic conditions.
The aim of the programme is to demonstrate that renewable fuels may constitute an additional solution to reduce emissions in the transport sector; allowing today's internal combustion vehicles to continue to be used with a smaller environmental footprint.
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It is worth noting that renewable fuels should not be confused with so-called e-fuels or synthetic fuels. The latter are produced using green hydrogen and carbon dioxide bound by the atmosphere, becoming a different technology, which is still at an early stage of development and characterised by highly high production costs.
In fact experts estimate that even towards the end of the decade the cost of synthetic fuels will remain significantly higher than that of conventional fuels, with its price ranging to EUR 4, while their production capacity will only cover a very small proportion of global demand.
