Electrofuels

Americans spend a lot of time – and energy – driving and flying. The average U.S. driver logs about 13,000 miles every year. To fuel our commutes and summer road trips, Americans last year consumed more than 136 billion gallons of gasoline, which accounts for 60% of U.S. oil demand and is responsible for a quarter of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. On the commercial side, more than 10.3 billion gallons of jet fuel were consumed in 2014 by U.S. airlines alone.

The goal of the workshop was to bring together thought leaders from distinct science communities to collectively develop new ideas and identify the most promising R&D pathways to capture and utilize solar energy for the production of infrastructure-compatible, organic high-energy transportable fuels.

Learn more about ARPA-E’s Electrofuels program, which is using microorganisms to create liquid transportation fuels in a new and different way that could be up to 10 times more energy efficient than current biofuel production methods.