HIF Global leads the way with first US e-Fuels route clearance

The “first” domestic clearance for an e-fuels pathway under the California Air Resource Board’s (CARB) “Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS)” program has been given to e-fuels manufacturer HIF Global. As previously announced, the LCFS project, which aims to lower the carbon intensity (CI) of transportation fuels used in the Golden State, granted HIF Global the Tier II Design Pathway Certification. The business claims that the Tier II certification covers e-diesel as an opt-in fuel, e-naphtha, a drop-in replacement made from processed crude oil, and e-SAF, a synthetic drop-in fuel alternative that is said to provide a 90% decrease in carbon footprint.

It is understood that LCFS has annual carbon intensity reduction targets which, if exceeded, result in credits that industry stakeholders can earn. Moreover, the program is said to be based on a ‘credit and deficit’ concept, wherein fuel producers with CI scores lower than the baseline can generate LCFS credits they can sell to those with higher-than-baseline scores.  Consequently, this is believed to have the potential to incentivize a ‘wider’ adoption of e-fuels.

Although e-fuels hold promise for slashing emissions from shipping, their widespread adoption faces technological and infrastructural hurdles that need to be addressed if the industry intends to ‘fully realize’ their potential.

This is according to the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), which examined the roles of e-fuels (specifically e-diesel, e-methane and e-methanol) in maritime decarbonization in its November 2024 “Potential of Synthetic Fuels for Shipping” report.

As per EMSA, e-fuels require renewable hydrogen and carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere or oceans but technologies like direct air capture (DAC) are still in the demonstration phase, making large-scale e-fuel production ‘unfeasible’ for now. In addition to this, EMSA underscored the need for a more comprehensive emissions data calculation tool to better assess the ecological impact of e-fuels.