hydrotreated vegetable oil

Dorset, Belfast and Hounslow Councils are among dozens of local authorities across the UK running fleets of heavy-duty vehicles on “hydrotreated vegetable oil” (HVO). HVO is made from renewable resources like vegetable oils and animal fats, rather than fossil fuels, and has been billed as a sustainable alternative to diesel. Councils told The i Paper they have been assured the HVO they use does not contain palm oil, with most opting for fuel made from used cooking oil instead. However, this also comes with its own problems as a surge in exports of used cooking oil from China to the UK has led some experts to question the green credentials of HVO. Experts told The i Paper they did not believe HVO was the answer when it comes to greening transport and instead encouraged councils to electrify their fleets. The biofuel can be made from a variety of sources, including animal fats, used cooking oil and some vegetable oils. Controversially, HVO is sometimes made out of palm oil, which has been a major driver of deforestation in countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. While virgin palm oil is rarely present in the HVO used in the UK, some suppliers do use palm oil mill effluent (Pome), a by-product of the palm oil production process. Officially over two million tonnes of Pome was used in Europe in 2023, including over 200,000 tonnes in the UK, while just one million tonnes are estimated to be available globally. “The actual supply is currently outstripping the possible maximum production of what we call palm oil mill effluent,” said Tim Dexter, policy manager at Transport & Environment. “What we’re getting and what we’re receiving at the moment is certainly fraudulent virgin palm oil, so isn’t being done in an ethical way, isn’t coming from an ethical source. That’s why we really shouldn’t be moving towards that as an option for decarbonising road transport.” In response to sustainability concerns, some UK suppliers have avoided purchasing HVO that contains palm oil or Pome, focusing instead on HVO made from used cooking oil. The i Paper contacted 12 councils to ask them what raw materials are present in the HVO they purchase. Of these, seven said the HVO contained used cooking oil and four claimed used cooking oil was the only fuel source they used. However, a growing global demand for biofuels means many European countries are now consuming far more used cooking oil than they produce, resulting in a booming export industry from China. Some question the environmental credentials of exporting used cooking oil around the world to produce a “green” fuel. While China’s export figures match up with its collection capacity, Transport & Environment say there are questions over the country’s domestic consumption that could alter the figures. Last week the EU concluded an investigation, at the request of German authorities, into whether Chinese exports fraudulently contained other materials, such as palm oil. It found “some systemic weaknesses in the way certification audits have been conducted”, but did not find evidence of fraud. Zemo Partnership, a UK-based industry body that runs an independent verification scheme for renewable fuels, said it has “full confidence in the sustainability” of the HVO it verifies. It said all HVO used in the UK was also verified by the Department for Transport. “To the best of our knowledge, audits related to biomass wastes and residues are conducted throughout the supply chain, including in China and other Asian countries,” they added. “You can use that for jet fuel, for road fuel…so if a council goes, ‘We’re running on 100 per cent HVO because it’s a direct replacement for diesel’, great, but somewhere else there’s less renewable diesel in the chain,” Finch said. “The whole thing is just a big displacement activity because we can’t make any more of the original feedstock.” Some councils told The i Paper it was difficult to find electric heavy duty vehicles with the range to serve rural