14 minute read
25 HELLO HVO
HVO going greener, faster
Hydrotreated vegetable oil - cheaper solution Words: Steve Banner
Transport operators agonising over how best to reduce the impact of their vehicles on the environment may be unaware that there is a simple step they can take today that will cut their CO2 output and reduce harmful tailpipe emissions. It does not involve switching to radically-different and eye-watering-expensive technology, or having the ranges of their trucks compromised, or making a massive investment in new refuelling facilities at their depots.
All they have to do is stop using conventional diesel immediately and switch to HVO - hydrotreated vegetable oil - instead. Classed as a paraffinic diesel, it is made from renewable waste materials such as vegetable and animal fats and can cut well-to-wheel CO2 emissions by up to 90% or more, claim its advocates.
Running trucks on HVO can reduce a truck’s NOx emissions by up to 29% contends Green Biofuels chairman, William Tebbit. His Andover, Hants-based company supplies the fuel under the Green D Plus banner.
“Its use undoubtedly leads to improved air quality,” he states. “Particulates come down by up to 85%, and here I’m especially thinking about what are known as superfine particulates.“ They are not caught by a truck’s particulate filter, and can pass through your skin and get into your bloodstream.”
Tailpipe CO2 emissions are down by 5% to 6% too,” he adds.
HVO can either be used on its own or mixed with ordinary diesel in a haulier’s bulk tank - no special storage arrangements are required - or a truck’s running tanks.
Says DAF UK marketing manager, Phil Moon: “It’s what is sometime referred to as a drop-in fuel. It’s more stable than ordinary diesel, with a low water content.”
Says Tebbit: “It doesn’t smell, it’s not carcinogenic, and if it gets into the ground then it biodegrades in 52 days. It burns very cleanly and produces no smoke at all.“
Another advantage is that because it produces less NOx, the truck consumes around 20% less AdBlue,” he observes. “One leading bakery company’s fleet has covered around 30m miles on HVO, and reported no problems with it.”
Says Moon: “Go back a couple of years and there was certainly a lack of awareness, but a number of operators have now gone over to it completely. In other cases they are using it in
trucks running out of just one of their depots so they can assess its performance.”
Vehicles that run on it do not require any additional servicing he says and filters do not require replacing more frequently. Says Tebbit: “If anything you’ll probably be able to extend your service intervals subject to the manufacturer’s agreement.”
Changing to HVO has zero impact on a truck’s second-hand value, Moon adds.
If you subsequently decide for whatever reason that HVO is no longer for you, then you can easily revert back to fossil diesel. Observes Tebbit: “There is no difference in performance between the two.”
HVO’s use is now widely approved by truck manufacturers. Says Oliver Soell, head of product at Mercedes-Benz Trucks UK: “All our Euro VI engines are certified to run on it and it is suitable for winter use. There are no changes to service intervals, and no change to service life.”
Says Moon: “All current DAF engines can operate on it.” He believes transport companies should give it serious consideration.
“Let’s suppose you run a truck that covers 100,000 miles annually at an average 10mpg, which means it burns 10,000 gallons/45,400 litres of fossil diesel a year,” he observes. “This means it emits 121.6 tonnes of CO2 yearly; but if you switch to HVO you can cut that figure by 109.5 tonnes.”
Drawbacks? Says Tebbit: “It’s around 10% to 12% more expensive than standard diesel.”
Nor can you buy it at service stations.
Green Biofuels can arrange for Green D Plus to be delivered in bulk to hauliers premises however - “we can deliver up to 38,000 litres at a time,” says Tebbit - and can offer businesses an environmentallyfriendly bulk tank to hold it if they do not already have one. Several well-known oil distributors are
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starting to supply HVO says Moon, so it is starting to move away from being a slightlyexotic fuel to one that is rapidly becoming more mainstream.
“If you buy HVO in bulk then it could work out cheaper than buying ordinary diesel at a forecourt,” he adds; and the pump price of fossil diesel has of course been rising steeply.
Some van makers remain cautious about HVO’s use. For the avoidance of any doubt any light commercial fleet contemplating introducing it should get written approval from the manufacturer or manufacturers concerned to ensure warranties are not invalidated.
Concern has also been expressed about some producers employing palm oil as one of their HVO feedstocks given its association with deforestation. It is gradually being phased out however and looks set to be eliminated by 2030 in line with European Union sustainability standards.
Somewhat surprisingly, HVO is subject to the same rate of duty and VAT as conventional diesel, despite its green credentials. Remarks Tebbit: “That does seem a bit daft given that it’s not a fossil fuel.”
He is not arguing for the rate to be changed, however. Instead, he is suggesting that hauliers who use HVO should be entitled to claim a rebate from HM Customs & Inland Revenue that is equivalent to the difference between the price of HVO and the price of fossil diesel.
“So if the former is 10p a litre more, then users should be able to get that 10p back,” he suggests.
Even with the price premium it attracts, HVO is growing in popularity says Tebbit.
“Our sales are doubling annually,” he says.”We supplied 50m litres in our last financial year and that should rise to 100m litres in our current one.”
While that is undoubtedly laudable, it has to be viewed in the context of the whopping 34bn litres of fossil diesel the UK consumes annually.
The HVO Green Biofuels sells is shipped over from mainland Europe.
“It comes from refineries in Finland, the Netherlands and Italy and is made from feed stocks that include tallow, used cooking oil, fish oil and all kinds of organic matter,” Tebbit says. “That means it’s sustainable.”
Finnish group Neste is a leading producer of HVO and markets it under the Neste MY Renewable Diesel banner. Further emission reduction benefits it cites include hydrocarbons down by 30% and carbon monoxide down by 24%.
Other European producers include Eni, Repsol and TotalEnergies. All HVO has to be made to the same standard - EN15940.
Says Moon: “We’re not saying it’s a forever fuel.” However it can deliver immediate environmental benefits until zero-emission battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell trucks become firmly established.
HVO is not the only drop-in EN15940compliant paraffinic diesel available. GTL is a potential alternative.
The initials stand for gas to liquid, and its use can cut particulates by up to 50% and NOx by as much as 37% compared with mainstream diesel according to Certas Energy. Its product portfolio includes Shell GTL, which it distributes in the UK.
Like HVO, it is delivered to fleets with their own bulk tanks. Like HVO too, it is pricier than ordinary diesel.
It is also made from a fossil fuel, which puts a dent in its CO2 credentials.
In response, Shell points out that GTL is available with carbon offsets; the energy giant is engaged in a variety of projects worldwide in order to offset CO2 emissions. They include the protection of peat land in Indonesia and a vast forest in Peru, and a reforestation project in the USA; which has resulted in over 42m trees being planted.
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Hydro-power Hydrogen provides a lighter route to electrification Words: John Kendall
The ever-growing
network of Clean Air, Ultra-Low and even Zero Emissions Zones and Areas spreading across the country is starting to focus the minds of commercial vehicle operators on the planned national phase out of fossil-fuelled vehicles. Although trucks will not be included in the ban on new combustion-engined light vehicles due to come into force in 2030, truck makers are working to meet the EU target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
Given current technology, trucks, like cars and vans will have to make the transition to electrical power to replace diesel. For heavy trucks, this is likely to lead in two directions. Vehicles covering shorter distances, on urban distribution and other regular predictable routes, will probably follow cars and vans and use batteries to power electric drive motors. For long-distance trucks, instead of batteries, the drive motors are more likely to receive electrical power from hydrogen fuel cells.
Like a battery, these devices contain two electrodes: a negative (anode) and a positive (cathode); sandwiched around an electrolyte. But unlike a battery, they will produce energy for as long as they are fed a fuel, which in this case is hydrogen. A catalyst separates incoming hydrogen atoms into protons and electrons, which travel to the cathode via different paths. The electrons travel through an external circuit, creating a flow of electricity. The protons migrate to the cathode vie the electrolyte, where they reunite with the electrons and combine with atmospheric oxygen to produce water and heat.
The advantage for long-distance vehicles is that re-fuelling takes about the same amount of time as refuelling with diesel, and fuel cells weigh less than the batteries that would be needed to offer a range of say 500 miles, although fuel cell vehicles still require a battery to damp out peaks and troughs in power demand.
Current fuel cells are one-third as efficient as batteries, although they are improving. A hydrogen-fuelling network for vehicles is also required. There are currently around 12 hydrogen re-fuelling sites across the UK, but these are mostly designed for cars and buses.
There is also the issue of how hydrogen is produced. It can be extracted from methane gas, but unless bio-methane is used, it would have to be sourced from fossil fuels. This is generally classified as “blue” hydrogen. Since fuel cells are reversible, when powered with electricity, they can generate hydrogen and oxygen from water. If the electricity is produced from renewable sources such as solar power, wind turbines, or hydro-electricity, no fossil fuels would be used to produce the hydrogen. This “Green” hydrogen could then be used to fuel hydrogen fuelcell powered trucks.
Not surprisingly, the clear signals about ending the use of fossil fuels to power vehicles is driving motor manufacturers to assess how they will power vehicles in the future. All major European truck manufacturers are now producing battery powered vehicles and assessing the viability of hydrogen fuel cells.
Daimler Truck, IVECO, OMV, Shell and the Volvo Group have established H2Accelerate: a project to create the conditions for a mass-market roll-out of hydrogen fuel-cell trucks in Europe. H2Accelerate will run through the 2020s with the aim of getting several hundred hydrogen powered trucks on the road and building a small number of high-capacity re-fuelling stations in the first phase. In the second phase the aim is to achieve volume manufacture of thousands of vehicles per year to ensure there are 10,000 hydrogen powered trucks on European roads by 2030 and then to ensure that major transport corridors across Europe have a network of re-fuelling stations.
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Colaboration
Daimler Truck and Volvo Group have also announced a joint venture for the manufacture of hydrogen fuel cells. Named cellcentric, it will develop, build and market fuel-cell systems for long-haul trucks and other applications. These could include buses, coaches, trains and shipping. Both companies have researched hydrogen fuel cells for several decades. Daimler first exhibited a fuel cell powered van in the mid 1990s. In preparation, Daimler Truck, which has spun off from its parent company, has been pulling its R&D spending out of diesel, and will be looking to share the burden of developing the final iterations of heavy-duty diesel for Euro VII and beyond with industry partners.
The company has already established a partnership with US engine maker Cummins to develop and manufacture medium-duty diesel engines. By 2025, Daimler Truck expects to have redirected most of its research and development spending to zero-emission technologies. The eActros LongHaul, with a range of around 500 kilometres on one battery charge, is scheduled to be ready for series production in 2024. The first prototypes of the 40-tonne truck are currently undergoing internal tests and engineers are planning to start trials of the e-truck on public roads this year. The eActros LongHaul will also enable high-performance charging – so-called “megawatt charging” making ‘refuelling’ on the road a practical proposition.
To meet its goals for battery powered trucks, Daimler Truck will intensify its existing partnership with lithium-ion battery manufacturer CATL that will extend beyond 2030. The batteries will combine high energy density with ultra-long cycle life, as well as fast-charging capability, to meet the specific requirements of battery-electric long-haul trucks.
Battery powered trucks will need a charging infrastructure for their specific needs and Daimler intends to kick start the charging infrastructure in core European and American markets through another strategic partnership with Siemens Smart Infrastructure, Engie and EVBox Group to provide charging infrastructure for truck fleets at their depots.
Just as battery electric vehicles need a charging infrastructure, fuel-cell powered vehicles will need a re-fuelling infrastructure and Daimler Truck has also announced a new partnership with Shell to provide a European hydrogen refuelling infrastructure from 2024. This will start with a 1,200km ‘hydrogen corridor’ between Rotterdam, Hamburg and Cologne, with Shell providing 150 hydrogen refuelling stations along this route. Daimler Truck has committed to supplying hydrogen trucks for customer use by 2025 and plans to have 5,000 in use by 2030.
Independent of Daimler Truck, the MultiHyFuel project, a public/private partnership with EU backing is covering a range of activities including the design of hydrogen fuel dispensers to ensure a standardised pump/vehicle connection and to set safe re-fuelling standards, as well as education and consumer awareness. Hydrogen Europe, established in 2008 will co-ordinate the project with participation from Air Liquide, ENGIE Lab CRIGEN, INERIS, Kiwa, Snam, Shell and ZSW with HSE and ITM Power from the UK. MultiHyFuel’s results will be used to publish a report next year.
If progress can be made as planned by all these projects, Europe’s cities can look forward to some measurable improvements in air quality as well as progress towards the wider goal of net zero.
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