Japan's largest oil refiner, ENEOS, has paused its project to create synthetic liquid fuel from captured carbon dioxide and hydrogen. While the technology successfully produced a drop-in fuel for combustion engines, the high cost of green hydrogen and carbon capture made large-scale production economically unviable. This pivot highlights a global trend where e-fuels are being reserved for hard-to-abate sectors like aviation and shipping. Because these industries require high energy density, synthetic fuels remain a long-term goal despite current scalability hurdles and energy intensity.
