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HVO as an Alternative to Agricultural Diesel & Co.?
The current protests by farmers are revitalizing the food-versus-fuel debate surrounding biofuels. HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oils) such as KlimaDiesel90 offers a sustainable alternative with up to 90% fewer new CO2 emissions compared to fossil diesel. Unlike biodiesel, HVO uses biological residues and waste materials, so no agricultural land needs to be used for the production of this synthetic fuel.
Decision on Unrestricted Sale of HVO100 at Gas Stations Postponed
However, the Federal Council's Transportation and Environmental Committees postponed the discussion on the Tenth Ordinance for the Implementation of the Federal Immission Control Act (10th BImSchV) last week, which would have allowed the unrestricted sale of HVO100 at public gas stations. Originally, the approval was scheduled for mid-April 2024.
“We criticize this delay because it further postpones the introduction of a sustainable and already available fuel,” complains Lorenz Kiene, Managing Director of Klima Kraftstoffe GmbH.
Quantities are missing
And there are further limitations that oppose the widespread use of HVO and biofuels. This mainly concerns the available quantity of the diesel alternative. According to Statista, only 16.2 million liters were produced EU-wide last year, including just 4.2 million liters of HVO. But alone the German agricultural and forestry sector currently consumes about 2 billion liters of diesel per year. The alternative fuels are therefore just a drop in the ocean. The available quantity cannot be significantly expanded either. In the long term, electrification of the agricultural and transport sector will be unavoidable.
Background
Only around 800,000 of the total 16.5 million hectares of agricultural land in Germany—so just under 5%—are currently used to grow corn, rapeseed, and other crops for biofuels. The blending of biodiesel and bioethanol in fossil fuels is limited and must not exceed 4.4% of energy consumption in transport. Thus, the demand for these raw materials cannot increase.
The Differences Between Biodiesel and HVO
Biodiesel and HVO products are often confused, even though the two fuels differ fundamentally in several areas:
- Raw Materials: Plants like rapeseed are specially grown for the production of biodiesel, and only parts of them are further processed for biodiesel. This is not the case with HVO, where only biological residual and waste materials are processed. The entire plant can be used, not just parts like the blossom or fruit. HVO can also be produced from other residual and waste materials like wood, sewage sludge, or plastic.
- Cold Stability: While biodiesel can be affected by low temperatures depending on the raw material, some HVO products like KlimaDiesel have comparable cold stability to fossil diesel.
- Storage Properties: There is no loss of quality with HVO even during prolonged storage. In contrast, there is a risk that biodiesel can absorb water, which can lead to microbial growth and thus a loss of quality (so-called “diesel pest”).
KlimaDiesel90
KlimaDiesel90 consists of 100% bio-based synthetic fuel (XTL) HVO and is produced from waste materials like used vegetable oil. The 90 stands for up to a 90% reduction in new CO2 emissions compared to conventional fossil diesel.
Whether a vehicle can tolerate pure HVO such as KlimaDiesel90 is indicated by the XTL symbol on the fuel cap. A current list of filling stations where KlimaDiesel25 and KlimaDiesel90 are available can be found here.
What This Means
Biodiesel and HVO will neither be a panacea as a cost-effective replacement for agricultural diesel & co. nor an adequate solution for an environmentally friendly restructuring of the agriculture and transport sectors. Instead, increased electrification of these areas should be pursued—even in agriculture, which has so far categorically excluded this possibility. The starting point should be light and medium-duty trucks, tractors, and agricultural machinery. Electrification in this area is already feasible today. The heavy-duty sector can follow later as battery technology evolves and new solutions emerge, particularly in agriculture.
Translated automatically from German.
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