Renewable Fuels

A Shortcut to Low-Carbon Results

Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) is often highlighted as the source of the problem when it comes to the CO₂ footprint of the transport industry – and electrification is just as often raised as the single solution. To us, it has never been a question about one thing or the other - It is about doing what makes sense, where it makes sense, and when it makes sense. The ultimate purpose of decarbonizing the transport industry, rather sooner than later. Decarbonization is not about tail-pipes – it’s about energy infrastructure. And the key to speeding up decarbonization of the whole industry is to accept that engines is just as much a part of the solution, as electrification is.

From Carbon-Burden to Carbon-Cycle

Fossil fuels are today covering 86% of the world’s energy consumption of over 158.000 TWh – and that leaves a heavy carbon footprint.

22% of the energy from oil is used for powering the 63 million Heavy- and Medium-duty trucks operating in the world today

Even if all these trucks were electrified tomorrow, what would it matter if the energy used to power them were still a carbon burden?

But there are alternatives, and some of them can be introduced already today. But it requires that we challenge the popular logic of measuring tailpipe emissions – and introduce Life-Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Well-to-Wheel approach.

Bio-fuels

Combustion of biofuels emits similar amounts of CO₂ as fossil diesel – but what’s more important is what happens before combustion. Common to all types of bio-fuels is that the raw materials during the production phase have obtained a great part of (if not more than) the CO₂ that will be released during combustion. Bio-fuels can be blended with fossil fuels, but many modern vehicles since Euro VI are fully compatible even with 100% pure biodiesel, resulting in an instant reduction of CO₂ emissions.

Check out this article to see how Bio-fuels has already contributed to significant decarbonization in California:

1^st generation biodiesel

Biodiesel is produced from vegetables such as rapeseed, soybeans, and palm oil, grown with the full, or partial purpose of producing biofuels.

2^ndgeneration biodiesel & HVO

Biodiesel is produced from various food wastes or animal fat.

3^rd generation biodiesel

Biodiesel is produced from Algaes grown at sea using sewage waste material.

Bio-methane

Replacement for fossil natural gas (CNG and LNG) produced by anaerobic digestion of all sorts of organic matter – from food-, plant-, and animal wastes as well as manure. Depending on the raw material, biomethane can even have a negative CO₂e impact!

Synthetic Fuels (e-fuels)

Take Hydrogen produced from green energy and combine it with CO₂ captured from the atmosphere or the chimney of industrial combustion facilities, and you have the recipe for carbon-neutral e-Diesel, e-Gas, e-Petrol, e-Jetfuel – just to name a few. Synthetic fuel is a part of the Power-to-X (PtX) concept and the Hydrogen-economy, and like bio-fuels it is an opportunity to replace fossil fuels for both existing and new vehicles, turning them instantly nearly CO₂ neutral.

Dinex Solutions for Renewable Fuels

While being effective means for quick-wins on the decarbonization journey, combustion of Renewable Fuels still requires Emission AfterTreatment Solutions to minimize pollutants. Dinex is constantly innovating our core technologies of catalysts and particulate filters to be equally supportive of both fossil fuels and various types of renewable fuels.