Revolutionary Electric Fuel Tested in Finnish Tractor for the First Time

On Tuesday, Nokia will conduct a test drive with a tractor equipped with a diesel engine, which will be refueled with electric fuel made from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Technology research center VTT says it will test this electric fuel 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 at Agco Power’s factory in Nokia. A tractor equipped with a diesel engine is refueled with electric fuel during a test drive that lasts several hours. The fuel consumption and various emissions in exhaust gases are measured by Agco Power’s director of product development Kari Aaltonen during the bulletin.

VTT’s project received EUR 3.3 million in funding from Business Finland and additional investments from companies increase funding to more than EUR six million for parallel research and product development efforts