All travel produces carbon emissions, whether you’re driving to the supermarket or flying to a holiday destination. As a travel company specialising in Antarctica, where the effects of climate change can be observed, we believe the industry has a special responsibility to reduce emissions. In 2022, members of the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) signed a declaration to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050 compared with 2008 levels, and reach net zero as quickly as possible (Swoop’s Head of Sustainability is a member of IAATO’s climate change committee).
But what does reducing emissions look like, and what steps are operators taking to reduce their carbon footprint? To find out more, I spent the day with Swoop partners Antarctica21 – not on the White Continent, but at the world’s first e-fuel power facility on the outskirts of Punta Arenas in Chilean Patagonia’s Magallanes province.
Antarctica21 and sustainable travel
Antarctica21 are the originators of the Fly & Cruise concept. In 2003, they launched the first Antarctic cruises to skip the two-day crossing of the Drake Passage by flying passengers to the Antarctic Peninsula to meet their ship – the boutique-sized Magellan Explorer.
I met their Community Relations and Sustainability Manager Roxana Seguel Vidal at Explorers House, a restored heritage building in downtown Punta Arenas and private club for Antarctica21 travellers heading to Antarctica. There was a buzz in the air because their new ship, the Magellan Discoverer, due to operate in the 2026/27 Antarctic season, had just undergone its first engine trials in the Chilean shipyard where it’s being constructed. Roxana beams when she tells me that the ship is the first hybrid-electric polar vessel to be built, not just in Chile, but in the entire Americas.
This new hybrid-electric ship, with its lower carbon emissions, is part of Antarctica21’s wider sustainability commitment. Since 2019, they’ve been measuring and reducing their carbon footprint, offsetting emissions through projects that support the development of clean energy. Explorers House is part of that commitment, incorporating solar panels and rainwater harvesting, as well building better local supply chains in Punta Arenas and across Magallanes province. ‘We’re actively contributing to a lower-impact operation,’ Roxana tells me.
But the biggest and most exciting scheme is one that Antarctica21 quietly rolled out two years ago. In the reception at Explorers House they have a reconditioned hard rubber zodiac boat – the workhorse of Antarctic cruising – to give guests a practical demonstration of how zodiac cruises work out during a trip. For the last two seasons, Roxana told me, Antarctica21 has been the only cruise operator in the world to power them with low carbon e-fuel. On top of that, this e-fuel was made at a facility less than an hour’s drive from Punta Arenas, operated by the company HIF Global.
What is e-fuel?
In recent years, the concept of biofuels has been hailed as a possible alternative to fossil fuels. These include biodiesel made using vegetable oils and animal fats, or bioethanal made from corn or sugarcane. Although they’re close to carbon neutral, they come with complications. The large amount of land and water required can take space from food crops, while in some areas, demand for biofuel precursors like palm oil has driven tropical deforestation.
E-fuels offer an alternative. They’re a radical new synthetic fuel, where the only resources needed to produce them are renewable energy, carbon dioxide and water. Electricity is used to extract hydrogen from water using electrolysis. This green hydrogen is then combined with carbon dioxide to produce green methanol. This can then be converted into a variety of fuels including gasoline, jet fuel or even maritime fuel. These fuels are close to being completely carbon neutral, with reduction in net carbon emissions of 80% or more.
Because the end result is chemically equivalent to conventional fuels, e-fuels can be used in existing engines and infrastructure without the need for any modifications. This may hold the key to decarbonising transport sectors that are hard to electrify – including shipping. As a bonus, synthetic e-fuels are free from sulphur oxide pollutants, and reduce the amount of black carbon produced by diesel engines by around 80%. This sooty particulate matter has a warming impact when it settles on snow. Most Antarctic black carbon is generated by the continent’s permanent research bases rather than ships, but it could be a real opportunity for the polar cruise industry to lead transition to cleaner energy sources in the region.
E-fuels are such a new technological development that they’re yet to roll out worldwide. In fact, there’s currently only one power plant in the world producing them commercially – and it’s less than an hour’s drive from Punta Arenas.
The world’s first e-fuel power plant
Chile’s Magallanes province is home to world class landscapes like Torres del Paine National Park, but the steppe outside Punta Arenas is a barren, windswept place. HIF Haru Oni e-Fules plant is a cluster of low buildings just off the highway, with only a large wind turbine giving any clue that it’s home to some cutting edge technology.
After a safety briefing, we’re given hard hats and high-visibility jackets for our tour, led by the plant’s planning and control engineer Vanesa Bontes and its production operator Sebastián López. As you’d expect from an industrial facility, there are machines with endlessly complicated arrangements of pipes, tanks and valves everywhere – one for each stage of the process. As he explains, the plant proves that it’s possible to make commercially viable e-fuel. The first e-methanol came off the line in December 2022 – the product of a US$78 million investment in building the plant. No wonder Sebastián was keen to show me a jar of those precious first drops on display in the reception areas.
The massive blades of the wind turbine make the production of e-fuel possible, he explained. The chemical processes required to make it currently require a great amount of energy – so an unlimited supply of renewable energy is key to its success. Patagonia is famously windy after all. As an experimental plant, HIF Haru Oni only has a single wind turbine, which caps its production at around 350 tonnes of e-methanol a year, and 130,000 litres of e-gasoline. But it’s that e-gasoline that is currently used by Antarctica21, for low pollution zodiac cruising among the penguins and the icebergs.
It’s a small step – but a very tangible one when we end the tour in front of a series of large white storage tanks, each as high as a two-storey building. One was holding fuel that would see use on the Antarctica Peninsula. Roxana beamed with pride because it was all produced locally: ‘It’s so significant for us that the e-fuel originates in Magallanes – the same region we use as our gateway to Antarctica.’
The path to a low carbon future
The visit to HIF Haru Oni felt like a glimpse into an optimistic climate future. Vanessa said that plans are already underway for a new plant to be built at nearby Cabo Negro with 64 turbines, as well as more plants near Montevideo in Uruguay, Rio de Janeiro and Matagorda in Texas – all using either wind, solar or hydroelectricity to produce e-fuel. When Matagorda starts production, it is planned to produce around 1.4 million tonnes of e-fuel every year. Crucially, this is likely to include shipping fuel. As e-fuel begins production at scale, it’s expected that the electrolysis and refinement processes will become more energy efficient.
In addition to this, HIF Haru Oni continues to push the envelope of what’s technically possible. Pointing to a series of nondescript grey containers, Sebastián told us that they will be the heart of a new Direct Air Capture unit, allowing the plant to remove carbon dioxide from the air to use in its process, rather than sourcing it as a byproduct from local industry as it currently does. The unit is expected to be operational by the end of 2026, when it’ll be the world’s first Direct Air Capture (DAC) unit dedicated to synthetic fuel production. Because it is so commercially sensitive, this was the only part of the plant where photography was banned, even though Sebastián kindly assured us that we didn’t look like we were there for industrial espionage.
Back at Explorers House and sitting on the zodiac in reception, Roxana explained what made Antarctica21’s use of e-fuels so exciting. ‘They represent a continued step forward in reducing our footprint and advancing a more conscious, responsible form of tourism within the available alternatives.’ Just as importantly, the fact that e-fuels can be used by existing engines, demonstrates that it’s possible to incorporate new energy sources without sacrificing efficiency or operational quality, even in such a remote and demanding polar environment.
There is clearly a long way to go for the Antarctic cruise industry to meet its carbon reduction target, but the use of e-fuels has strong potential to move the needle in the right direction. ‘Antarctica plays a fundamental role as a global climate regulator,’ Roxana continued, ‘Which is why we believe that initiatives like these are important to accelerate meaningful conversations and real change, both within the industry and on a global scale.’
The zodiacs on Magellan Explorer and its new sister ship Magellan Discoverer may currently represent a drop in the ocean – but all revolutions have to begin somewhere.
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