Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as a Renewable Diesel Fuel: Trade-off between NOx, Particulate Emission, and Fuel Consumption of a Heavy Duty Engine

Hydrotreating of vegetable oils or animal fats is an alternative process to esterification for producing biobased diesel fuels. Hydrotreated products are also called renewable diesel fuels. Hydrotreated vegetable oils (HVO) do not have the detrimental effects of ester-type biodiesel fuels, such as increased NOx emission, deposit formation, storage stability problems, more rapid aging of engine oil or poor cold properties. HVOs are straight chain paraffinic hydrocarbons that are free of aromatics, oxygen and sulfur and have high cetane numbers. Hydrotreating of vegetable oils is a modern way to produce very high-quality biobased diesel fuels without compromising fuel logistics, engines, exhaust aftertreatment devices, or exhaust emissions. These fuels are now also referred to as “renewable diesel fuels” instead of “biodiesel” which is reserved for the fatty acid methyl esters (FAME).