Associations and companies call for HVO approval for more climate protection

The biofuel HVO100 made from residual and waste materials must be legally approved for road traffic in a timely manner - this is the demand of numerous associations and companies in a joint position paper. The underlying problem: The transport sector in Germany, especially road freight and passenger transport, must nearly halve its CO2 emissions by 2030 compared to 2019 – from 164 million tons of CO2-equivalent to 85 million tons. Currently, the sector is failing to meet the targets of the Climate Protection Act, primarily because the market ramp-up for vehicles with alternative drives is still in its early stages. According to the paper, the transition to alternative drive technologies, such as battery-electric or hydrogen fuel cells, significantly depends on the availability and density of an alternative charging and refueling infrastructure network and will, therefore, require several years. To achieve the climate protection goals, all available defossilization options are needed.

Urgently required

Vehicles with conventional drives will therefore continue to contribute significantly to maintaining individual mobility, logistics chains, and operational processes in the medium term and must also contribute to emission reduction, it continues. Currently, about 97 percent of the vehicle fleet is still powered by fossil fuels. Therefore, it is urgently required to use renewable fuels that can replace fossil diesel one-to-one and have a high potential for emission reduction. Such renewable fuels could already be produced today from sustainable biogenic residual and waste materials (HVO100, short for Hydrotreated Vegetable Oils). However, the currently permissible blending of HVO with fossil diesel in Germany is completely insufficient to achieve the climate protection goals and moreover misses market demand.

Impractical legal framework

The current legal framework disproportionately restricts the marketing of HVO100 in a way that is impractical and far from reality. Commercial road freight vehicle fleets, travel, intercity and service vehicle fleets, as well as private individuals, are legally prohibited from using HVO100 — an inexplicable situation. For instance, this creates an imbalance in combined traffic, where diesel locomotives can be converted to sustainable HVO100, but trucks are still only allowed to run on conventional diesel. In passenger transport, public buses, in certain cases, are allowed to refuel with HVO100, but if the same company wants to refuel its coaches at the same station with the same fuel, it is prohibited.

"HVO100 according to DIN EN 15940 is a renewable diesel fuel that has been tested in practice and is available on an industrial scale. With the legal approval of HVO100 for the road transport sector, CO2 emissions of numerous diesel vehicle fleets could already be permanently, sustainably, and cost-effectively reduced today," according to the position paper.

Therefore, the signatories call for the rapid market opening for renewable paraffinic pure fuels from residual and waste materials (HVO100 according to DIN EN 15940) by including DIN EN 15940 as a requirement for market placement in §4 of the 10th BImSchV (German Federal Immission Control Ordinance).