Volcanic combustion

How tectonic degassing could power future hypercars

- CAMERON KIRBY

NOT CONTENT WITH SIMPLY powering vehicles with small explosions in their combustion chambers, Koenigsegg and Geely are looking to source power for future cars from something with a significantly bigger bang: volcanoes.

That’s not an exaggeration, with both manufacturers looking to source carbon from Icelandic volcanoes to concoct methanol-based alternative fuels. The pair have invested in an Icelandic company called Carbon Recycling International, which runs an innovative program that combines hydrogen and captured carbon to create methanol.

To source the C02 required, Carbon Recycling International built a plant on a semi-active volcano to harness emissions that would traditionally be released into the atmosphere. The endproduct is dubbed Vulcanol. But, unlike other synthetic fuels, the end product in this instance (while similarly artificial in its creation) is not refined beyond its alcohol state.

Christian von Koenigsegg told Bloomberg his interest in using volcanoes to create fuel stems from the fact it is “a very interesting way of creating an environmentally benign propulsion energy source.”

Benign is the key word there, with the final product still having some environmental impacts in its creation, particularly if the hydrogen isn’t sustainably harvested. However, under the right circumstances it could hypothetically become a carbon neutral process. Though the real benefit is capturing the carbon dioxide released from the volcano for transport uses first, instead of simply having it be released into the atmosphere.

The Swedish hypercars manufacturer has been looking to advance its combustion engines for several years, with interest in alcohol fuels being a natural step forward.