Sustainable fuels: E-Diesel and HVO make mtu engines (almost) climate-neutral

Deutsche Bahn, the Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto mining corporation, and the Golden Gate Ferry commuter service all have one interesting thing in common – they tank their vessels and vehicles with HVO, the clean and sustainable diesel fuel substitute. Numerous data centers are also powered by HVO, and snow groomers in Sweden that run on it are virtually climate-neutral.  

Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil or HVO for short, is one of the sustainable paraffinic fuels regulated by the European EN 15940 and US ASTM D975 fuel standards. On balance, EVO lowers CO2 emissions by up to 90%. This is because, when combusted in the engine, EVO releases only CO2 – the gas which will already have been extracted from the atmosphere during the growth of the plants used in EVO manufacture. The remaining greenhouse gas emissions can be accounted for by production processes and raw material and fuel transport, meaning they arise in the upstream chain.

HVO: The fuel made from plant waste

HVO is mainly produced from waste based on vegetable and animal fats and vegetable oil. Through the induction of a catalytic reaction and the addition of hydrogen, that waste is transformed into hydrocarbons, which exhibit a high oxidation stability. In other words, fats and vegetable oils are modified to assume the characteristics of diesel fuel, which they can either be added to or fully replace. “With its potential for sustainable business, HVO is pre-destined for use in the circular economy. Now we can use raw materials even more efficiently and process vegetable waste to manufacture sustainable fuel,” said Michael Stipa, Vice President Stationary Strategy, Business Development and Product Management at the Rolls-Royce Business Unit Power Systems.

The best news about HVO: it's already on the market. Even today, mtu engine operation can be almost CO2-neutral    

Why does HVO make diesel engines almost climate-neutral?

Seamless transfer  

That the changeover to HVO can be made seamlessly has already been demonstrated by Rolls-Royce customers from all over the world: In 2022, Deutsche Bahn tanked its goods locomotives with over half a million liters of HVO and will be increasing that to 10 million liters in 2023. Jörg Schneider, Head of Climate Protection and Energy at DB Cargo even calls the fuel 'engine-friendly'. At its mine in Boron, California, in the US, mining giant Rio Tinto completely switched its heavy machinery operation from fossil diesel to HVO, making the open pit mine the first in the world to have cleared that milestone. Its evaluation so far has been entirely positive, with the performance and reliability of the engines comparable to those running on diesel fuel. Staying in the US, the Golden Gate Ferry service in San Francisco has been using HVO in its vessels since 2019 – clocking up well over 120,000 operating hours. Michael Hoffman, deputy General Director of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway & Transportation District, wants to see the trend continue: “There is much less smoke visible in the ferry terminal since we made the switch from conventional diesel to HVO,” he enthused. Finally, AVK, the biggest supplier of standby power solutions to data centers in Great Britain, recently declared HVO to be its preferred fuel.