Bertone presented its new hypercar, the GB110, powered by a 1100 horsepower and 1000 Nm torque internal combustion engine, for a total weight of 1520 kg. One of the characteristics of the latest jewel of the Turin house is the feeding with sustainable fuels developed by the technological partner Select Fuel. In detail, petrol is the product of a patented technology named as Advanced Plastic to Fuel Technology, capable of recovering plastic waste to convert it into a ready-to-use fuel.
Sustainable fuels are the subject of growing attention from the industry, perceived as a useful tool for extending the use of the dear old combustion engine on the road. A broad definition to describe such products is that of fuels, useful for storing and transporting chemical energy, which do not contribute to the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but which instead maintain a neutral budget. They are then divided into different categories according to the production process, while maintaining a common logic. A fuel in its traditional conception is in fact made up of hydrocarbons, i.e. molecules containing hydrogen and carbon, which is why these two fundamental elements are in any case necessary to produce sustainable petrol. The product can be obtained through the chemical fermentation of organic substances or through laboratory synthesis, a process which gives life to the so-called e-fuels.
In order for the fuel to be coherently defined as sustainable, the distillation of hydrogen and the energy necessary for the synthesis of the fuel must not in turn increase the CO2 atmospheric. As regards the carbon component, it can be obtained in a sustainable form from biomass, agricultural and food waste, municipal waste or carbon capture. The latter technique consists in “capturing” the carbon dioxide emitted by industrial plants such as thermoelectric plants, refineries and steel mills, and then distilling the carbon so that its subsequent combustion in a heat engine does not increase the net balance of greenhouse gases emitted in the ‘atmosphere. To the technologies mentioned above is finally added the one developed by the Select Fuel company, renamed as Advanced Plastic to Fuel Technology. The process originates from the collection, selection and shredding of polycarbonates, compounds present in common plastics with a high carbon content. Through a subsequent chemical conversion process the details of which are jealously guarded by Select Fuel, up to 75% of initial waste can be converted into energy products.
In detail, the company claims that 30% of the final products are carbon black, while 70% are fuels suitable for powering internal combustion engines, JET engines and energy production plants, with the possibility also of the sale of carbon credits. Not only does the Select Fuel technology guarantee a neutral carbon balance throughout the entire production and consumption cycle of the product, it also offers another possible solution to the disposal of plastics, a crucial problem also with regard to the pollution of water basins and oceans. Parameters such as the price per liter and the energy content have not yet been disclosed but, as always happens in research, the value of a novelty lies in its future potential even more than in its immediate usefulness.
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