HVO fuels in the UK are becoming increasingly popular, with a study reporting that there are 3.25 million tons of HVO used around Europe, so what is it, and how is it produced?
What is HVO Fuel?
Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil is a biofuel made from waste, such as animal fat or processed vegetable oils. They use a specialist method of hydrotreatment to turn it into a biofuel. Due to how it’s made, HVO is classed as renewable diesel and renowned for having a longer shelf life than other biodiesels. HVO is entirely fossil-free, resulting in a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
How is HVO produced?
Producing Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil is a complex and specialist hydro-processing treatment. It’s made from hydrogenation and hydrocracking vegetable oils and animal fats using hydrogen and catalysts at high temperatures and pressures. In this hydrotreating process, oxygen is removed from the feedstocks consisting of triglycerides and fatty acids. The resulting products consist of straight-chained hydrocarbons (paraffin) with varying properties and molecular sizes depending on the feedstock characteristics and the process conditions.
The conversion usually takes place in two stages.
The Two Stages – Hydrotreatment and Hydrocracking
The hydrotreatment typically takes place between 300 – 390°C. For the treatment of triglycerides, propane is a typical by-product.
Firstly, hydrogen then gets added to double bonds in the renewable feedstock. After that, more hydrogen gets added to remove propane by cleaving the triglycerides into fatty acids. Lastly, the fatty acids are converted to hydrocarbons by hydrodeoxygenation (removing oxygen as water) and decarboxylation (removing oxygen as carbon dioxide).
After that, the hydrocarbons are converted to a quality that meets the end-user criteria, for example, conventional petroleum fuel criteria, by isomerisation and cracking treatment.
The production is well-developed at a large scale. The investment cost for HVO facilities is generally higher than for biodiesel production plants (FAME production from vegetable oils). Today’s hydrogen used in Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil production mainly comes from fossil sources. HVO can be made from vegetable oil and fats containing triglycerides and fatty acids.
Some feedstocks are rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil, corn oil, palm oil, waste, cooking oil, tall oil, and animal fats. The process is flexible, converting a wide range of low-quality waste and residue materials to hydrocarbon-based drop-in fuels. All HVO must fulfil the sustainability criteria stated by the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED). The vegetable oils (i.e. triglycerides) are also used as feedstocks for producing FAME (fatty acid methyl esters) biodiesel.
Compared to FAME, combustion of HVO in engines generally gives lower NOx emissions and reduced issues of poor cold properties (e.g. flow properties), storage instability and ageing of the fuel. HVO is renewable paraffin with similar combustion properties as other renewable paraffin, such as Fischer-Tropsch liquids, which are produced via biomass gasification and chemical synthesis.
It can be produced in dedicated facilities that make 100% HVO or co-processed with fossil oil in refineries. In co-processing, 5-10 % of biobased feeds are typically blended with fossil feeds. Higher blends of biobased material are also used. The biobased components are fractionated in different refinery lines and end up as multiple products.
The process can also be modified to produce renewable kerosene, for example, for the aviation industry and jet fuel applications.
Your Reliable HVO Supplier
Are you looking for an HVO Supplier? Oilfast UK can deliver HVO across the UK. We provide competitive prices whilst ensuring quick delivery. Are you looking for more information? Contact your HVO expert to discuss your options.