Cost-effective solutions
Electric and hydrogen vehicles are possible solutions in the mid to long term for heavy duty vehicles (HDV) and should play their important part in the sustainable energy mix.
However, biodiesel, and waste-based biodiesel in particular, offers by far the most cost-effective solution to the displacement of fossil diesel in any diesel engine vehicles left on the road. It is also unique in that it is available immediately.
Switching from current diesel HDVs to zero tailpipe emission vehicles will take time and significant capital investments.
Vital intervention
However, policy makers must not forget, decarbonising HDVs needs support. As long as there are diesel engines on the road the industry can bring sustainable biodiesel to replace the fossil diesel.
Higher blends of renewable fuels are a decarbonisation option for several HDV segments that may find switching to battery electric vehicles or hydrogen (fuel cell) vehicles challenging in the near term.
High blends of waste-based biodiesel significantly reduce emissions from vehicles with the heaviest payloads, often travelling long distances, and which are accountable for the highest proportion of GHG emissions in the HDV sector.
A 2021 study by Zemo Partnership showed that an average 30% blend of renewable fuels into fossil fuels in 2030, saves the transport sector in the UK an additional 46 million tonnes in well-to-wheel GHG emissions; 4% of all road transport GHG emissions. By 2050, this figure could rise to 140 million tonnes of additional cumulative GHG emission savings.
The study covered three heavy duty vehicle sectors: trucks, buses, and coaches. More importantly, the study found that the most significant GHG reductions were achieved when high biofuel renewable fuel blends were combined with electrification.
Blends of 20% and 30% biodiesel (B20 and B30) are currently in use in HDV fleets around Europe that are committed to reducing GHG emissions. In the UK, one operator alone has been running their whole fleet for several years on a minimum of B20, supplied by Argent Energy, and has saved over 150,000 tonnes of GHG emissions. Increasing the blend level of biodiesel to B20 instantly triples the GHG savings. Increasing to B30 more than quadruples the savings.
Technical specifications
What is more, the European fuel standard EN 16709 is already in place and lays down the strict technical specifications for B20 and B30, making it simple for operators to check the fuel quality being supplied and therefore be assured of smooth change overs. Simple incentive measures are available to trigger wide uptake of high blends in HDV fleets.
These could be non-fiscal and fiscal. For example, national governments could reform the fuel duty in accordance with the carbon and energy intensity of a fuel or offer a fuel duty rebate to fuel operators that use high blends.
In this way, incentives could be tailored to ramp up the level in a country’s HDV fleet from B7 to B20, B30 and beyond.
The use of high blends will also enable EU Member States to incentivise more sustainable biodiesel to be used in the fuel mix, allowing overall greater climate targets to be achieved. A ramping up to high blends, even with the reduction in the use of diesel cars and small vans, will require a continued steady increase in the use of biodiesel overall in road transport, as diesel demand for the commercial HDV fleet will decline post-2030.
Diesel demand for commercial vehicles in the Netherlands is expected to steadily fall from 2028 onwards.
However, with uptake of high bio-blends in HDVs, the volumes of biodiesel required could steadily rise until at least 2040 when electrification and other zero tailpipe emission options may be technically feasible at scale.
It is not only the most cost-effective means for decarbonising diesel trucks and the most effective use of waste lipid raw materials, it also leads to considerable GHG emission savings in the short to medium term while the long-term solutions are developed.
The earlier the savings can be made, the greater the overall savings that can be achieved to offset climate change. As a sector, there is a need for a stronger recognition in policy for the role of renewable liquid fuels in displacing any fossil diesel to assist decarbonisation of the HDV and bus fleet sectors.
The analysis done by us shows that when taking an overview of transport decarbonisation, the use of high blends in HDVs provides by far the biggest bang for our buck in the quickest timescale. Use of gas, electric and hydrogen must all play their part but there is a strong tendency for policy makers to look at the sectors in silos rather than holistically.
Important and exciting as the efforts are to progress electrification and hydrogen, and indeed decarbonisation of aviation, the opportunity to use existing solutions to tackle the legacy diesel fleet is being missed.
It is crucial that a very good solution is not blotted out by other good solutions simply because of non-holistic planning, or policies made in a blinkered enthusiasm for exciting new lines of decarbonisation work.
Biodiesel relying on waste lipids is the best decarbonising tool available now for the EU’s diesel vehicle sector and achieves the highest GHG savings under Annex V of the revised Renewable Energy Directive (REDII). By their nature, waste lipids are a limited resource.
Studies into availability of waste feedstocks abound and continue to be commissioned, all producing varying answers. Whatever one concludes on this, the available waste lipids should be directed to where they can achieve the best results, or even better, allowed to be competed for fairly, on a level playing field, so the market forces can be permitted to function, driving down costs to consumers and driving efficiency up. This is what our climate change policy makers must have at the top of their minds; the big picture of decarbonisation – what provides GHG savings for the least cost; what provides value to their country, their region or the EU.
The great efforts to join aviation to the cause, at last, are vital. But the great platform of road decarbonisation is critical still and will be critical for HDVs for another 20 years. What we ask policy makers to remember is that it has only worked because of their support and the reality is that it needs their support as much as ever so it can continue delivering results. Indeed, with biodiesel on the cusp of delivering the greatest contribution to the HDV decarbonisation problem in the form of high blends, we need support more than ever.
For more information: This article was written by Dickon Posnett, director of government affairs at Argent Energy and he is also an EWABA board member. Visit: ewaba.eu
However, biodiesel, and waste-based biodiesel in particular, offers by far the most cost-effective solution to the displacement of fossil diesel in any diesel engine vehicles left on the road. It is also unique in that it is available immediately.
Switching from current diesel HDVs to zero tailpipe emission vehicles will take time and significant capital investments.
Vital intervention
However, policy makers must not forget, decarbonising HDVs needs support. As long as there are diesel engines on the road the industry can bring sustainable biodiesel to replace the fossil diesel.
Higher blends of renewable fuels are a decarbonisation option for several HDV segments that may find switching to battery electric vehicles or hydrogen (fuel cell) vehicles challenging in the near term.
High blends of waste-based biodiesel significantly reduce emissions from vehicles with the heaviest payloads, often travelling long distances, and which are accountable for the highest proportion of GHG emissions in the HDV sector.
A 2021 study by Zemo Partnership showed that an average 30% blend of renewable fuels into fossil fuels in 2030, saves the transport sector in the UK an additional 46 million tonnes in well-to-wheel GHG emissions; 4% of all road transport GHG emissions. By 2050, this figure could rise to 140 million tonnes of additional cumulative GHG emission savings.
The study covered three heavy duty vehicle sectors: trucks, buses, and coaches. More importantly, the study found that the most significant GHG reductions were achieved when high biofuel renewable fuel blends were combined with electrification.
Blends of 20% and 30% biodiesel (B20 and B30) are currently in use in HDV fleets around Europe that are committed to reducing GHG emissions. In the UK, one operator alone has been running their whole fleet for several years on a minimum of B20, supplied by Argent Energy, and has saved over 150,000 tonnes of GHG emissions. Increasing the blend level of biodiesel to B20 instantly triples the GHG savings. Increasing to B30 more than quadruples the savings.
Technical specifications
What is more, the European fuel standard EN 16709 is already in place and lays down the strict technical specifications for B20 and B30, making it simple for operators to check the fuel quality being supplied and therefore be assured of smooth change overs. Simple incentive measures are available to trigger wide uptake of high blends in HDV fleets.
These could be non-fiscal and fiscal. For example, national governments could reform the fuel duty in accordance with the carbon and energy intensity of a fuel or offer a fuel duty rebate to fuel operators that use high blends.
In this way, incentives could be tailored to ramp up the level in a country’s HDV fleet from B7 to B20, B30 and beyond.
The use of high blends will also enable EU Member States to incentivise more sustainable biodiesel to be used in the fuel mix, allowing overall greater climate targets to be achieved. A ramping up to high blends, even with the reduction in the use of diesel cars and small vans, will require a continued steady increase in the use of biodiesel overall in road transport, as diesel demand for the commercial HDV fleet will decline post-2030.
Diesel demand for commercial vehicles in the Netherlands is expected to steadily fall from 2028 onwards.
However, with uptake of high bio-blends in HDVs, the volumes of biodiesel required could steadily rise until at least 2040 when electrification and other zero tailpipe emission options may be technically feasible at scale.
It is not only the most cost-effective means for decarbonising diesel trucks and the most effective use of waste lipid raw materials, it also leads to considerable GHG emission savings in the short to medium term while the long-term solutions are developed.
The earlier the savings can be made, the greater the overall savings that can be achieved to offset climate change. As a sector, there is a need for a stronger recognition in policy for the role of renewable liquid fuels in displacing any fossil diesel to assist decarbonisation of the HDV and bus fleet sectors.
The analysis done by us shows that when taking an overview of transport decarbonisation, the use of high blends in HDVs provides by far the biggest bang for our buck in the quickest timescale. Use of gas, electric and hydrogen must all play their part but there is a strong tendency for policy makers to look at the sectors in silos rather than holistically.
Important and exciting as the efforts are to progress electrification and hydrogen, and indeed decarbonisation of aviation, the opportunity to use existing solutions to tackle the legacy diesel fleet is being missed.
It is crucial that a very good solution is not blotted out by other good solutions simply because of non-holistic planning, or policies made in a blinkered enthusiasm for exciting new lines of decarbonisation work.
Biodiesel relying on waste lipids is the best decarbonising tool available now for the EU’s diesel vehicle sector and achieves the highest GHG savings under Annex V of the revised Renewable Energy Directive (REDII). By their nature, waste lipids are a limited resource.
Studies into availability of waste feedstocks abound and continue to be commissioned, all producing varying answers. Whatever one concludes on this, the available waste lipids should be directed to where they can achieve the best results, or even better, allowed to be competed for fairly, on a level playing field, so the market forces can be permitted to function, driving down costs to consumers and driving efficiency up. This is what our climate change policy makers must have at the top of their minds; the big picture of decarbonisation – what provides GHG savings for the least cost; what provides value to their country, their region or the EU.
The great efforts to join aviation to the cause, at last, are vital. But the great platform of road decarbonisation is critical still and will be critical for HDVs for another 20 years. What we ask policy makers to remember is that it has only worked because of their support and the reality is that it needs their support as much as ever so it can continue delivering results. Indeed, with biodiesel on the cusp of delivering the greatest contribution to the HDV decarbonisation problem in the form of high blends, we need support more than ever.
For more information: This article was written by Dickon Posnett, director of government affairs at Argent Energy and he is also an EWABA board member. Visit: ewaba.eu
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