Audi 2015 Annual Report Download - page 93

HOW DO WE
MAKE AUDI
E-GAS ?
WITH WIND.
I head down a gravel track between corn-
fi elds and woods on the edge of a small
town with a population of , in the
German state of Lower Saxony, and there
it looms ahead of me : the Audi e-gas plant
in Werlte. This is where around , met-
ric tons of Audi e-gas are produced each
year – using green power. Enough to en-
able , Audi g-tron drivers to cover
, climate-neutral kilometers a year,
which adds up to a total of . million
carbon-neutral kilometers each year.
For this, , metric tons of CO are
captured temporarily – the amount
ab sorbed by about , beech trees
in one year. So how does it all work ?
Gregor Waldstein, one of the pioneers of
the Audi e-gas project, is there to explain
it to me today and tells me what inspired
him in the fi rst place : wind turbines.
“I kept wondering : What happens to the
power from wind farms if supply exceeds
demand ?” His appetite for innovation
whetted, he searched for and found
researchers who had already spent many
years investigating how to store large
amounts of renewable energy. Together
they founded the company ETOGAS and
put their ideas into practice : using green
power for electrolysis. This process breaks
down water into oxygen and hydrogen.
In a further stage, CO is added to the
hydrogen. The result : synthetic methane –
Audi e-gas. This can then be stored in the
existing natural gas network. The gas is
then used as fuel in an Audi g-tron or
converted into green electricity, as needed.
Gregor Waldstein // ETOGAS
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