In the case of this plant, the CO2 is from a nearby power utility biomethane plant that runs on organic waste. According to Audi’s Unicorn Rainbow Power Comittee, “The Audi e-gas plant is expected to achieve an annual output of around 1,000 metric tons, capturing around 2,800 metric tons of CO2 that would otherwise pollute the atmosphere. As a result, the fuel is climate-neutral.”
Is this plant going to suddenly reverse the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and save us all from climate change while making Audi bundles of cash in the process? No. This is a massive science experiment by Audi to try new avenues of sourcing, storing and transporting renewable energy (solar, in this case) and using it to power their vehicles.
The nifty part about the setup is how Audi tries to match the fuel use and contribute the equivalent amount indirectly to the A3 g-trons it is putting into service. Participating A3 g-tron owners can report their CNG consumption using specialized credit cards, then Audi delivers an equivalent quantity e-gas into the natural gas grid. So, while owners are not using exclusively Audi methane it is in effect a direct 1:1 exchange.
    Audi A3 Sportback g-tron & Audi Tron Future Lab Experience. Click image to enlarge |
If you did better in high school chemistry than I ever did, this might make sense to you: “Even in the comprehensive well-to-wheel calculation, which includes the outlay for building and operating wind turbines and the e-gas plant, current forecasts predict the CO2 equivalents to remain under 30 grams per km.” Take that, Prius groupies!
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This experiment is intended to fuel 1,500 cars driving 15,000 km per year. To us North Americans, it seemed like a very expensive and complicated way to produce natural gas in the midst of the fracking boom and still relatively cheap gasoline prices. But experiments need to be made if we hope to maintain our culture of personal transportation, both on the consumption end, making vehicles as efficient and clean as possible, and on the production end, finding ways to produce fuel or harvest renewable energy in portable, storable forms.
Audi had one more product at the Tron Future Lab Experience, and it will likely be the most widespread production vehicle of them all: the 2015 Audi A3 Sportback e-tron plug-in hybrid, which we will cover in a full Preview next week.
