Audi’s synthetic fuels: is this the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for?

A couple of years back, German automaker Audi quietly opened an e-gas plant in Werlte, Germany.

The factory — which is run on renewable energy — uses electrolysis to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. And this hydrogen is used to power fuel-cell vehicles, right?

Wrong. For the time being at least, Audi instead employs methanation — reacting said hydrogen with carbon dioxide — to produce synthetic methane, or e-gas. And this gas (which it says is “virtually identical” to natural gas) is then used to power decidedly uncommon compressed natural gas vehicles like the Audi A3 Sportback g-tron.

Read more on Motorburn.