Next summer Audi is going to launch in Werlte a production plant of e-Gas , a synthetic natural gas that will be transported through the public network of natural gas to the CNC service stations (compressed natural gas) in all Germany. For this, a huge and heavy methanization reactor, which has been manufactured by MAN, another company of the group, in the town of Deggendorf, has been moved from one point to another.
The Audi E-Gas plant
Audi is building in Werlte its first e-Gas , in a land that occupies 4,100 square meters. Audi will begin soon to produce e-Gas, on the basis of a green energy, in which hydrogen generated in an environmental and CO2 is used.
And why in Werlte and not in Ingolstadt, where is the Audi ? The objective is mobility without CO2 emissions. For this, it is necessary to use alternative energy sources, such as wind energy, to generate electricity. And there is an excess of wind in northern Germany. During the manufacture of e-Gas CO2 is absorbed, which would otherwise go to the atmosphere. When the fuel is burned in the engine, an amount of CO2 equivalent to that previously absorbed is released again. The result is a completely closed CO2 cycle, which means outstanding behavior from the environmental medium point of view.
The land that Audi owns in Werlte is still under construction, but as soon as the snow melts, the plant will begin its test period, which will be completed towards the summer of 2013. From that moment, about 1,000 metric tons of e-Gas through the public natural gas network. The plant is prepared to absorb around 2,800 metric tons of CO2 each year, which is approximately the same amount that absorbs 224,000 trees of the species in that same period. And the first serial production vehicle that will work with this innovative fuel is also in project: the Audi A3 Sportback TGNC , which will appear in the concessionaires at the end of 2013.
In the long term, 1,500 vehicles propelled by compressed natural gas will travel 15,000 kilometers each with a neutral balance of carbon dioxide emissions, thanks to the e-Gas produced in Werlte.
E-Gas plant in Werlte will solve problems such as storage of electricity surpluses. At present, the energy network cannot always transmit sufficient electricity from the northern coast of Germany to the towns of the south of the country that require large quantities. If the excess of electricity becomes methane, as will occur in the Audi E-Gas plant , then this energy can be stored in the natural gas network and later distributed.
