ScotRail has begun trialling Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as an alternative to diesel in one of its Class 156 train units. The trial was initiated on 19 February, and is set to run for 12 weeks at the operator’s Corkerhill Depot, with testing carried out in partnership with Angel Trains and Crown Oil.
If successful, ScotRail plans to further investigate the use of HVO as a means to reduce greenhouse gases along railway lines throughout the country, utilising the alternative as a transitionary measure until such time as carbon-neutral fuel sources become more readily available.
Interesting in light of concerns about “greeness” of HVO production on BBC R4 Today this morning
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm24n8nej94o
It uses PALM OIL – even when “second-hand”
Which is one of the products most grossly damaging to the environment on the planet.
Vast swathes of supposedly-protected jungle & forest are cleared for Palm Oil plantations, killing of hundreds of thousands of supposedly-protected species
We shouldn’t be using this stuff, at all.
Potentially greener transitional fuel (although needs a good hard look from producer to consumer) is DiMethyl Ether (DME), produced from gas from biomass (e.g. anaerobic digesters.
DME is to diesel engines what LPG/CNG is to petrol engines: can be used with some engine adaptation; I think still needs some “real” diesel to get engine to start & up to operating temperature when DME can take over; reduced “tailpipe” emissions.
Issues: Expensive to produce; limited usage in the world (and no UK/EU supply chain); needs adaptation including extra tankage which may be possible in all vehicles; and I suspect isn’t yet proven in larger engines such as bigger rail DMU and locomotives (usage to date has mostly been road vehicles, although may have also been trialled in larger static engines and marine.)
Probably better to accelerate investment in fully or predominantly electric solutions
HVO sounds like waste biomass ..
The alternative (HVO) is made of waste product from a mix of agricultural and food production, and is able to be used in existing diesel engines without the need for any modifications.