What are synthetic fuels?
Sustainable synthetic fuels include BtL (Biomass to Liquid), HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) and PtL (Power to Liquid) such as e-diesel. Engines do not need to be converted to use these fuels.
Already available today: HVO
For HVO, waste vegetable and animal fats and used vegetable oils can be used as base materials, which are converted into hydrocarbons by means of a catalytic reaction with the addition of hydrogen. In this way, the fats and vegetable oils are adapted in their properties to diesel fuel and can either supplement it or replace it completely.
The advantages of HVO:
- Significantly lower CO2 emissions: Up to 90 percent (depending on the manufacturing process and feedstock) less than fossil diesel. The reason: Because HVO fuel is produced from renewable raw materials, its combustion produces only about as many greenhouse gases as were absorbed by the plants during the growth of the biomass.
- The fuel burns cleaner
- Diesel particulate emissions are reduced by up to 80 percent, and nitrogen oxide emissions by an average of eight percent.
- Thanks to production from residual and waste materials, there is no competition with food production.