New eco-friendly fuel shows promise

Shuttle buses carrying people to Yumeshima Island in Japan to join the Expo 2025 provided their last services on Oct 13, but their potential as new energy-powered vehicles is just beginning to gain momentum.

- Ranjana Wangvipula

This shuttle bus at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka runs on synthetic hydrocarbon, developed by the ENEOS Corporation.

(BANGCHAK CORPORATION)

The vehicles were run by electrofuel, a type of eco-friendly fuel which could compete with batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs).

These are dominating automotive markets as campaigns against global warming intensify.

Thailand is heavily promoting EVs and batteries, but as production of electrofuel on a commercial scale is not so far off, the government should pay more heed to this fuel, including it in plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions in the transport sector.

EV sales, which are doing well here, are not a complete solution to air pollution.

It is hardly possible to electrify all types of vehicles, especially large-sized buses, trucks and ships which usually travel on long-haul routes. These bus and trucks are often fueled by diesel.

Electrofuel might solve this problem.

Widely known as “e-fuel’; electrofuel is a type of synthetic fuel created by using electricity from renewable sources to combine hydrogen and carbon dioxide to produce synthetic hydrocarbon fuel.

In other words, we are making oil that can fit internal combustion engine-powered cars without the need to make changes to car engines.

The recent Expo in Osaka was the first time in Japan that e-fuel was tested in commercial vehicles.

The shuttle buses took people between the Umekita Green Place Bus Terminal in Osaka and Yumeshima Island, offering a direct service to the Expo site for six months after the event started on April 13.