Motorsport – and Le Mans in particular – has long been a pioneering proving ground for new technologies. However, as the world zeroes in on net zero goals, reducing carbon emissions in such a high-performance environment for such a long period of time is a major challenge.
The race organisers are working with TotalEnergies to explore all the options and Romain Aubry, the company’s Technical Manager – who was born and grew up by the Mulsanne Straight – explains: “There are many different technologies and we are not here to say that one is better than another.
“Le Mans is a unique platform for us to test new energy approaches and these include 100% sustainable fuels that were introduced last year; a battery solution we have co-developed with Peugeot and Saft, our affiliates; and a hydrogen refilling solution for MissionH24 project with big plans for the future.”
Electric power has been pioneered in Formula E, where TotalEnergies is an EV fluid supplier, and has progressed from the early days when drivers had to swap cars even in short races due to a lack of charge to the current level where cars can run to the finish line and race distances are starting to lengthen.
Electric power, however, is not ideal for all forms of racing, due to the heavy weight of batteries. In endurance, the high speeds and long stints push the weight of batteries to the limit and to match the current performance of the top classes in a sustainable way requires a different approach.
Sustainable fuel
Last year, for the first time, the entire Le Mans grid was supplied with 100% certified* sustainable fuel and this will continue in 2023. The fuel, Excellium Racing 100, is made by TotalEnergies using local wine residue biomass and promises to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 65%** over its lifecycle.
Aubry explains: “We take the biomass and transform it into pure ethanol, then we transform this into hydrocarbons using a process called Alcohol-To-Gasoline (ATG). This is well-known and used worldwide and involves removing the oxygen atom from the compound to obtain pure hydrocarbon fuel.
Source: Autosport