Impact of Future Fuels 2002-21-0073

The likely transition from today's conventional to future alternative fuels will be discussed. It will be shown that in the very long term renewable fuels might be the most promising road fuels with respect to low CO₂ emissions. In the short and medium term, however, liquid alternative fuels will prevail being produced initially from natural gas and later increasingly from biomass. Methanol, Ethanol, GTL Hydrocarbons and other fuels are still under study since lowest WTW CO₂ emissions and overall system costs are not yet clarified. The availability of alternative fuels in large quantities will depend on the costs for production and infra-structure, and not least of all, on the market benefits of the resulting fuel / power train systems in a holistic assessment. Cost trends for conventional and alternative fuels will be discussed.