Waste oil gets a second life as biofuel and helps energy users move away from fossil fuels with ease. Orla Stevens of Certa Ireland and Claus Geisler Madsen of DCC Energi Denmark tell more.

“We want to make biofuel available to everybody so they can start on their carbon reduction journey,” says Orla Stevens, Managing Director at Certa Ireland. “And the fuel we’re particularly excited about is HVO.”

HVO – or hydrotreated vegetable oil – is a ‘second-generation’ biofuel. So called because, after treatment, waste oil that would otherwise go to landfill gets a second life as a lower-carbon fuel suitable for diesel engines.

“HVO is chemically comparable to diesel, so you can simply go to a fuel pump and add it to your tank without any issues or making any modifications to the engine,” says Orla.

HVO delivers up to 90 per cent reduced carbon emissions over the full production lifecycle when it’s produced from waste material such as cooking oil.

“What’s so good about it is that it gives you the opportunity to reduce carbon emissions from the second you start using it,” she adds.

HVO in Numbers

4.5 billion tonnes of fossil oil is consumed every year
40%  of oil consumption will be biofuels by 2040
90% reduced carbon emissions delivered by HVO
HVO plays a key role in reducing emissions

Certa Ireland – a DCC Energy business – switched its delivery fleet to HVO in March 2023 after a trial the previous year and has helped customers including construction company John Sisk & Son, Dublin Port, and Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) with their own transition away from fossil fuels.

DCC Energy businesses in the UK, Austria, Sweden, Norway and Denmark are also working with customers to reduce their emissions by switching to this lower-carbon fuel.

In Denmark, DCC Energi has just won a tender to be sole supplier of HVO to nearly all the country’s 98 municipalities – local authorities running public services – from June this year.

“We’re proud of this. It’s recognition that we have a strong product and that we’re on the right path,” says Claus Geisler Madsen, Chief Commercial Officer at DCC Energi.

Denmark has been working hard to become one of the most climate-friendly countries in the world. “Our country’s 2020 Climate Act sets the target to reduce emissions by 70 per cent by 2030 compared with 1990,” Claus says. “So we’re even more ambitious than the EU.”

HVO has a key role to play in this ambition. “It’s what I call a plug-and-play fuel,” says Claus. “There are no technical issues to overcome, unlike other solutions still in development. It’s available. And we have it in stock. I love how it can make such a difference.”

Why more businesses are switching to HVO

Claus sees the new public sector contracts having a ripple effect. “As municipalities specify HVO for their own tenders for things like public transport contracts, more businesses will start using it – because they have to,” he says.

So, what’s the process for a commercial fleet manager to make the change from fossil diesel to HVO? Assuming they don’t simply say: “Fill her up!”

Orla laughs: “Most of our customers have started small. And we do say that it’s worth checking in with your original equipment manufacturer first.” Having said that, the changeover is straightforward. Referring to Certa’s own HVO transition, she says: “Whether a vehicle was built in 2003 or 2023, we’ve found what make or model you drive makes no difference to performance.”

She points out the success of customer HVO trials at Certa. The carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) savings can be big. John Sisk & Son for example produced 3,000 tonnes a year of CO2 from diesel, around 60 per cent of its Scope 1 emissions. The company now uses HVO in everything from generators to supersized diggers at its sites across Ireland – a logistical delivery challenge that Certa was happy to rise to.

Because HVO emits less particulate matter than conventional fossil diesel, the effect of reduced emissions is more tangible. You no longer see dirty exhaust fumes coming from airport baggage transportation as it crosses the tarmac to a waiting plane at Dublin airport, for example, a benefit that DAA and passengers alike appreciate.

HVO for farming, transport and home heating

DCC is already working with businesses with ambitious net zero targets as well as organisations for which sustainability is paramount.

Last summer, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) trialled HVO on the polar research ship RRS Sir David Attenborough. Certas UK – a DCC Energy business – had to prove that the fuel freezing point was below minus 26°C before supplying BAS with 1.5 million litres for their journey to Antarctica.

High-emissions industries such as farming and road haulage are obvious markets for HVO. Certa has ambitious plans to make HVO available for customers at their depot network and pay-at-pumps sites.

Orla also sees potential in the off-gas-grid domestic market, as HVO can be dropped into oil-fired heating systems. “There are more than 700,000 off-gas-grid homes in Ireland that rely on fossil oil for home heating. Switching to HVO is more affordable compared with the thousands it costs to install a heat pump and retrofit a rural home,” she says.

“We have strong supplier relationships and are used to negotiating contracts for legacy fuels that we can now apply to HVO,” says Orla. “It’s bread and butter for us. We have the logistics, and we’re already set up for this with hundreds of trucks, depots and storage tanks. Outbound logistics is something that we do quickly and cost-effectively,” she says. “The opportunities are endless.”


*Against a 1990 baseline