FIA's Formula E hopes to bring out the best in EV technologies and the promotion of the use electric cars. Eelectric car usage will make benefits to the quality of air, an improved quality of life. However the main objection from the anti-electric car activists is that there is the resultant pollution/carbon production caused by the production of that electricity in the first place (coal-fired, gasoline or diesel power stations/generators) and cancels out their environmental credits.
To charge the Formula E race cars, a British company Aquafuel Research Ltd was commissioned to build mobile generators packed inside shipping containers and freighted to each Formula E race. The generators are unique because they run on a fuel that is essentially emission-free, glycerine.
The generators, Cummins KTA50s have been modified with Aquafuel’s patented technology to run on glycerine. A sustainable fuel; lubricity is much better than diesel, do not produce soot or particulates and more efficient than diesel.
Aquafuel generators provide 42kW of electricity per car. That equates to about 850kW of power if all 20 cars are plugged in at once. They hope to promote glycerine generators for clean commercial applications, integrating ‘green’ fuel into a regional grid. Other issues of taking over food-production/arable land and critical fresh water irrigation in biofuel/glycerine production, they see hope in the production of glycerine from salt water algae (Dunaliella salina) will be commercially viable, creating a fully sustainable production process.
INSIGHT: Formula E