Synthetic fuel is not science fiction. It is already used in some applications, in particular in racing. It is economically impractical to use it on ordinary cars.
A fuel made for sports cars isn’t necessarily right for all vehicles, but YouTube channel Seen Through Glass ventured into an experiment to evaluate the company’s use of biomass-based gas in a production car.
Of course, the average person doesn’t drive around town in a Ferrari 360. But the supercar still serves as a benchmark for seeing how an engine designed for fossil fuels performs with something else in the tank. In this case, the fuel is produced with a combination of biomass and hydrogen. Biomass is based on agricultural crops, and when it’s all processed, the result is a fuel that works like gasoline.
Yes, that also means it burns and emits carbon like gasoline. However, the released carbon is already part of the ongoing carbon cycle, being absorbed over several months as crops grow. As a result, the video claims to be a carbon neutral solution. ‘Collect some old crops, convert them into fuel using hydrogen, and go racing,’ the authors of the video recommend.
In the case of P1 fuel, we mean that literally. The company already supplies synthetic fuel to the World Rally Championship and was recently used to showcase a 1990s Formula 1 car.
This Ferrari owner admitted that he felt comfortable after testing it in the high-revving 3.6-liter V8 360. And, unsurprisingly, the car performed as it should. The only aspect not addressed in the video was fuel consumption.
