On Tuesday, Nokia will conduct a test drive with a tractor equipped with a diesel engine, which will be refueled with electric fuel. Technology research center VTT says it will test electric fuel made from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide for the first time in vehicle use on Tuesday.
Electric fuels are made from carbon dioxide and water with the help of electrical energy, with hydrogen being an important intermediate product. Together with companies, VTT has developed the production of electric fuel for commercial applications and industrial scale. Responsible leader of the project, research professor at VTT Juha Lehtonen says in the announcement that the fuel can be used to replace fossil diesel fuel in areas that are difficult to electrify, such as heavy road traffic and shipping. In addition, it can be used in work machines. “Next, we aim to get information about the usability of the fuel through a field test.”
MTB:n according to the release, hundreds of kilograms of synthetic hydrocarbons have been produced in the project for fuel production. After this, the hydrocarbons have been refined by Neste into ready-to-use synthetic diesel. Now this fuel is being tested in practical operation. The test is carried out at the factory of Agco Power, which manufactures diesel engines, in Nokia. A tractor equipped with a diesel engine is refueled with electric fuel. During the test drive, which lasts several hours, the fuel consumption and the amount of various emissions in the exhaust gases, among other things, are measured, says Agco Power’s director of product development Kari Aaltonen in the bulletin.
VTT’s project, which started in 2021, received EUR 3.3 million in funding from Business Finland, and in addition, the companies’ parallel research and product development investments increase the funding to more than EUR six million.