Biodiesel in Europe
Information and statistics on biodiesel production in Europe is available from the European Biodiesel Board
Annual biodiesel production and capacity statistics published by EBB (2009/2010)
Background information on biodiesel is also available at www.refuel.org and www.biofuels-platform.ch
Hydrotreating of vegetable oils for production of "Renewable
Diesel Fuel"
The following text is copyright SAE
"Hydrotreating of vegetable oils or animal fats is an alternative process to esterification for producing biobased diesel fuels. Hydrotreated products are also called renewable diesel fuels.
Hydrotreated vegetable oils (HVO) do not have the detrimental effects of ester-type biodiesel fuels, such as increased NOx emission, deposit formation, storage stability problems, more rapid aging of engine oil or poor cold properties. HVOs are straight chain paraffinic hydrocarbons that are free of aromatics, oxygen and sulfur and have high cetane numbers.
Hydrotreating of vegetable oils is a modern way to produce very high-quality biobased diesel fuels without compromising fuel logistics, engines, exhaust aftertreatment devices, or exhaust emissions. These fuels are now also referred to as “renewable diesel fuels” instead of “biodiesel” which is reserved for the fatty acid methyl esters (FAME).
Chemically hydrotreated vegetable oils (HVOs) are mixtures of paraffinic hydrocarbons and are free of sulphur and aromatics. Cold properties of HVO can be adjusted to meet the local requirements by adjusting the severity of the process or by additional catalytic processing. Cetane number of HVO is very high, and other properties are very similar to the gas-to-liquid (GTL) and biomass-to-liquid (BTL) diesel fuels produced by Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis.
Since HVOs are hydrocarbons, they meet conventional diesel fuel requirements (EN 590, ASTM D 975, Worldwide Fuel Charter category 4) except for low limit of density in some specifications. The FAME ester specifications (EN 14214, ASTM D 6751) do not apply for HVO. The lower heating value of HVO (34.4MJ/liter) is substantially higher than that of ethanol (21.2MJ/liter). When the better efficiency of compression ignition engines compared with spark ignition engines is also taken into account, one liter or gallon of HVO can power a vehicle about double the distance compared to an ethanol based fuel such as E85."
[Source: Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as a Renewable Diesel Fuel; Hannu Aatola et al, Seppo Mikkonen, 2008)
Neste Oil has developed the NexBTL process for production of "Renewable Diesel Fuel". The company Currently has a production capacity of 240000 tons in Finalnd and HVO plants in Singapore and Rotterdam are scheduled to commence production in 2011, each with a capacity of 800000 tons [Source: Neste Oil presentation, Fuels for the Future 2008]