Alternative drives: Study Diesel alternative positive climate balance?

A study on behalf of the German Environmental Aid (DUH) issues the fuel alternative HVO100, which is generated from hydrogen -treated old vegetable oils and fat residues, a bad certificate. “We show that this is a big fashion pack and that we have a fake climate protection ahead of us here,” said the Federal Managing Director of DUH, Jürgen Resch, at the presentation. The investigation was carried out by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU) in Heidelberg.

HVO100 available in Germany since May 2024

HVO is the abbreviation for the English name “hydrogenated vegetable oil”. Used vegetable oils and fats are processed as the starting material, which is incurred as a waste product in catering or private households, for example. The number 100 refers to the purity content of the alternative fuel. In this form without further admixture, it has been available in Germany since May 2024. Among other things, Deutsche Bahn uses it to convert its own diesel train fleet in a climate-neutral manner in the medium term.

Compared to conventional fossil diesel fuel, HVO100 saves up to 90 percent of CO2 emissions from 2023 according to a evaluation of the Federal Institute for Food and Agriculture from 2023. In the IFEU study, however, this scale is questioned of savings.

Plant oil is scarce resource

The authors mainly refer to one main argument: there are already numerous uses for vegetable and animal fats as a waste product. “It is used everywhere: as a heating fabric, as a lubricant, as the basis for washers up to perfumery,” emphasized Resch.

This also applies to Asian countries, from which around half of the vegetable oil used for the production of HVO is imported. Since the raw material is limited, other oils would have to be found for these existing uses to replace the exported plant fat. If the replacement consisted of particularly climate -damaging palm oil, HVO100 would be even more climate -damaged than conventional diesel, including this effect.

Resch demanded that the German economy and the federal government would have to focus on electrification as the most important alternative to fossil fuels.

The Federal Association of Free Petrol States and independent German mineral oil dealers (BFT) rejects the criticism. “The DUH has been trying to discredit HVO for a long time and unsuccessfully and to accept e-mobility as the only drive form,” said Managing Director Daniel Kaddik. The study is based on model assumptions that speculated on relocation effects and hypothetical palm oil substitutions.

In practice, a different picture shows. “Raw material bottlenecks are not an argument against HVO, but an indication of promoting the expansion of local collection systems. Projects in Germany show that the collective volume can be significantly increased,” emphasized Kaddik.