DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen cooperate in renewable fuels

• Research initiative in the pre-competitive environment
• SunFuel®, diesel and methanol from biomass

Hanover, Sept. 16, 2002 - In Hanover today, DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen reinforced their commitment to renewable fuels. Together with DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen will be involved in a research project with the Freiberg company Choren Industrie GmbH for the manufacture of high-quality fuels from biomass. In this project in the pre-competitive environment, the two automakers intend to make more rapid progress in gaining well-founded experience with renewable fuels. This was stated today by Dr. Ulrich Eichhorn, Head of Corporate Research at Volkswagen AG, and Prof. Herbert Kohler, Head of the Vehicle Body and Drive Systems Directorate at DaimlerChrysler and Corporate Environmental Officer, at a press conference in Hanover in the presence of Dr. Bodo Wolf, Managing Director of Choren Industries.

This research initiative is the expression of the two companies’ endeavors to reduce as far as possible the extent of carbon dioxide emission from fossil sources. The gas carbon dioxide, a byproduct of fuel combustion in automotive engines, is suspected to be a contributing factor to global warming. Fuels derived from biomass, on the other hand, give rise to no additional carbon dioxide, since during combustion only the same quantity of this gas is released that is absorbed from the atmosphere by the growing plants.

Whilst Volkswagen is initially interested in the production of synthetic fuels (SunFuel®) for internal combustion engines, diesel and methanol are at the center of attention for DaimlerChrysler. In the course of this research project, fuel quality and quantity will also be assessed and a comprehensive energy and materials balance sheet drawn up – from the regional acquisition of biomass, via processing, up to the fuel distribution chain.

The various types of regionally derived biomass under investigation in this project are converted into liquid fuels in a multistage process. These fuels are free of aromatic compounds and sulfur. In the first stage, the biomass is processed into biocoke in a cogeneration plant and then further transformed into synthetic gas, from which the desired fuels can then be manufactured.

Dr. Ulrich Eichhorn: “With this approach, an end to oil supplies does not spell the end of gasoline. Fuels synthetically produced from biomass, such as SunFuel, complete the closed cycle and thus emulate nature. They are free of sulfur and aromatic compounds and are already today excellently suited to environment-friendly application in existing internal combustion engines.”

Dr. Herbert Kohler: “Securing energy supplies in the long term is one of the key challenges for the future. Without affordable energy, there can be no mobility, no transport of people or goods, no dynamic economy, no freedom of movement. Sustainable mobility – for coming generations, too – is the task at hand.”

Dr. Bodo Wolf, Managing Director of Choren Industries: “Deriving fuels from biomass in sustainable production methods can secure the basis for fuel supply in the future.”

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