Vegetable Fuel Approved for Volvo Euro Truck Engines
Volvo Trucks approved the use of diesel hydrogenated vegetable oils for all of its Euro 5 engines, saying the fuel “works very well” in the engine.
HVO acts like regular diesel but is produced from renewable material such as vegetable and animal oils as well as rapeseed oil and can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 90%, according to Volvo.
"We believe in HVO's potential and see an increasing interest from both customers and transport buyers. The major challenge is the availability of raw materials and refineries. We therefore hope that our investment in fuel will contribute to increased demand and that the HVO can be used in many other parts of the world in future," Lars Mårtensson, director environment and innovation at Volvo Trucks, said in a statement.
The manufacturer began field testing the alternative fuel in 2013 with DHL Freight and several other companies with six test trucks, which over a two year period, drove more than 600,000 miles.
"The field test showed that the HVO works very well in our engines and can be used under the same conditions as regular diesel. It is also possible to freely mix diesel and HVO," Tobias Bergman, product manager for alternative fuels and hybrids at Volvo Trucks, said in a statement.
Volvo trucks said it expects by September to have a global certification of HVO for its D5 and D8 variants of its Euro 6 engine.
"The fuel is suitable for all customers who want to reduce their CO2 emissions, and we see no restrictions regarding the type of transport or business. Combining HVO with the low emissions of our Euro 6 engines will allow the environmental impacts of the trucks to be minimized,” Bergman said.
