en Seta
<%= Localization.GetString("ChangeLanguage.text", ResolveUrl("~" + PortalSettings.ActiveTab.SkinPath + "App_LocalResources/SkinResources.resx"))%>en<%= Localization.GetString("ChangeLanguage.text", ResolveUrl("~" + PortalSettings.ActiveTab.SkinPath + "App_LocalResources/SkinResources.resx"))%>pt
HVO: What Distinguishes This New Generation of Renewable Fuels?

HVO: What Distinguishes This New Generation of Renewable Fuels?

Business

Advanced biofuels, such as HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil), are becoming increasingly important in the energy transition. Developed to reduce the carbon intensity of liquid fuels, they can help decarbonize transport sectors where electrification remains more challenging.

The European Union has set ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with transport. However, there is a difficult challenge to overcome: in energy-intensive sectors such as heavy-duty road transport, maritime transport, and aviation, electrons are not the solution. Electrification would require large battery systems, resulting in high costs and reducing cargo capacity in these vehicles. While passenger cars continue to accelerate towards electric mobility, aircraft, ships, and many heavy-duty vehicles will continue to depend on liquid fuels for many years. The challenge is therefore to find ways of producing these fuels with a lower carbon intensity.

“Everything that can be electrified will be electrified directly. But there are transport segments that we cannot decarbonise so easily and where we will continue to need liquid fuels,” explains Sérgio Machado, Head of Hydrogen and Renewable Fuels at Galp.

What Makes HVO Different from Other Fuels?

HVO is a renewable fuel. Unlike fuels produced from crude oil, it is mainly manufactured using waste materials and industrial by-products (from the food industry and other sectors), used cooking oils (UCO), animal fats, and other residual feedstocks.

Although it is a biofuel, it should not be confused with traditional biodiesel (FAME). Thanks to its properties, HVO offers several advantages:

  • It can be used in compatible diesel engines without any modifications. Vehicles can run on 100% HVO, whereas FAME has a maximum technical blending limit (e.g. 10%).
  • It delivers performance comparable to, and sometimes better than, conventional diesel.
  • It provides greater storage stability.
  • It can significantly reduce carbon intensity across its lifecycle, depending on the feedstock used, achieving up to a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuels.
HVO for Roads. SAF for the Skies.
HVO for Roads. SAF for the Skies.

If HVO was designed to help reduce emissions from road transport, SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) serves the same purpose in aviation. Produced from the same residual feedstocks and through a similar process, this sustainable fuel consists of a blend of bio-jet fuel and conventional jet fuel, forming SAF, which helps reduce the carbon intensity of air travel.

How Is HVO Produced?

HVO production converts residual feedstocks into renewable fuel through an industrial process that uses hydrogen.

 

How Is Galp Producing HVO?

For decades, the Sines Refinery has been a strategic infrastructure asset for Portugal’s energy supply, producing around 90% of the fuels consumed in the country. At the same time, it is also one of the nation’s largest industrial emitters of carbon dioxide, making its transformation a key element in the decarbonization of transport.

This transformation began before the construction of the new HVO unit. Since 2017, Galp has been producing fuels containing a renewable component through co-processing, a process that incorporates residual feedstocks such as used cooking oils alongside crude oil during refining. HVO is also produced through co-processing.

The next step is the HVO@Galp project: a dedicated, purpose-built facility exclusively focused on producing renewable diesel (HVO) and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). 

E

European Targets

 

Transport decarbonisation is one of the European Union’s priorities for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. To support this objective, the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) establishes that, by 2030, Member States must ensure that 29% of the energy consumed in transport comes from renewable sources or, alternatively, achieve a 14.5% reduction in the greenhouse gas intensity of transport fuels.

Each EU Member State is responsible for transposing this directive into national legislation. In its proposed transposition, Portugal has adopted an overall target of 29% renewable energy incorporation in transport by 2030.

Renewable Fuels and Green Hydrogen: A Combination to Reduce Emissions

Once fully operational, the HVO@Galp project will have the capacity to produce approximately 240,000 tonnes of HVO and 180,000 tonnes of SAF per year. This production is expected to avoid around 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent emissions annually by replacing fossil fuels with renewable alternatives.

The Galp H2 Park will contribute to reducing the refinery’s direct emissions by approximately 110,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year by replacing part of the hydrogen currently produced from natural gas with green hydrogen.

Together, these projects demonstrate how different technologies can work in a complementary way: on one hand, reducing emissions associated with energy production; on the other, lowering the carbon footprint of transport fuels. They represent a new stage in the transformation of the Sines Refinery and an example of how innovation can accelerate the energy transition.

Print:

Share: