Chile's e-fuel plant project given rubber stamp on EIS

Chile’s Haru Oni project, which is set to build a plant for the production of green hydrogen-derived e-fuels in the southern tip of the country, has passed the environmental impact review, it was announced on Tuesday.

The environmental committee for the region of Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica unanimously approved the environmental impact statement (EIS) for the future pilot plant, stakeholders in the project, Enel Chile and Highly Innovative Fuels (HIF), said.

The Haru Oni project will integrate a wind powered electrolyser to produce green hydrogen, which will then be combined with CO2 captured from the atmosphere to produce synthetic methanol. The methanol will be converted into e-fuel via a methanol-to-gasoline technology.

HIF, the project lead and a company affiliated with Chilean power producer Andes Mining & Energy (AME), recently signed an agreement to buy the CO2 removal equipment from New York-based Global Thermostat LLC, the latter announced in late April.

Besides HIF and AME, as the primary developer, the Haru Oni project will bring together the expertise of energy utility Enel Chile, Chilean state-owned oil company Empresa Nacional del Petroleo SA (ENAP), Germany’s Siemens Energy AG (FRA:ENR) and Porsche AG and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM).

The project was also promised an EUR-8-million (USD 9.7m) grant from the German government, per an earlier announcement.

In the pilot phase, The plant would produce around 130,000 litres of e-fuels per year starting in 2022. HIF signed a memorandum of understanding with German petroleum products and fuels trader Mabanaft GmbH & Co KG to sell up to 500 million litres of fuel per year, once the Haru Oni plant reaches the commercial phase.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.212)

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