HIF Global wins ‘first’ US approval for e-fuels pathway

March 12, 2025, by Sara Kosmajac

US-based e-fuels producer HIF Global has been granted the ‘first’ domestic approval for an e-fuels pathway under the California Air Resource Board’s (CARB) “Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS)” program.

As disclosed, HIF Global was awarded the Tier II Design Pathway Certification under the LCFS initiative, which is aimed at reducing the carbon intensity (CI) of transportation fuels used in the Golden State.

According to the company, the Tier II certification includes e-SAF, a synthetic drop-in fuel substitute said to offer a 90% carbon footprint reduction, e-naphtha, a drop-in replacement produced from processed crude oil, and e-diesel as opt-in fuel.

Executive Director of the HIF Global Board Meg Gentle explained that e-fuels, as synthetic hydrocarbons, “seamlessly integrate” with the infrastructure and engine technology available today.

She also believes that the demand for e-fuels in the United States – as well as globally – could skyrocket to more than 250 million tonnes per annum over the next decade and clear the path for over $1 trillion in potential capital investment in new facilities to manufacture the fuels.

It is because of this that Gentle thinks the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard program could play an ‘increasingly important’ role. As elaborated, designed to promote the use of cleaner, lower-carbon fuel alternatives, the LCFC initiative requires producers and importers to ensure that the CI (measured in grams of CO2-equivalent per megajoule) of the fuels they supply goes down over time.

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.

Sustainable fuels in a sustainable world

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.

Namely, in the analysis, EMSA argued that e-fuels cannot be expected to play a ‘major’ role in decarbonizing shipping by 2030 – as is hoped – due to a plethora of reasons. These include manufacturing challenges, sustainability considerations, as well as the matter of their availability (or lack thereof).

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.

Potential of e-fuels in shipping decarbonization under the spotlight in EMSA’s new report

Research & Development

Another issue is the competitiveness gap between zero-emission fuels and other early compliance options, like liquefied natural gas (LNG), biofuel and carbon capture and storage (CCS).

While e-fuels can potentially offer a carbon-neutral alternative, they are currently produced at a much higher cost, primarily due to the expensive production processes, including renewable electricity and hydrogen production.

A January 2025 study by the UK’s UCL Energy Institute Shipping and Oceans Research Group (UCL) and UMAS suggested that without a global fuel standard (GFS) combined with a flexibility mechanism, the maritime industry could not hope to kick-start an e-fuel transition before 2044.

In other words, a strong greenhouse gas levy combined with targeted e-fuel subsidies could mend this gap and speed up decarbonization efforts, UCL and UMAS proposed.