Hydrotreating (HVO) – Concepts, feedstocks and specifications

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Section: ADVANCED BIOFUELS
Series: HVO
- Hydrotreating (HVO) – Concepts, feedstocks and specifications
- Hydrotreating (HVO) – Advantages over FAME and properties
- Hydrotreated Vegetable Oils (HVO) Biorefineries – The rise of renewable diesel
- Posts: HVO
              
The acronym HVO stands for “Hydrotreated Vegetable Oils” or ”Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils”.
Key of the process: Treatment with hydrogen.

In the HVO production process, hydrogen is used to remove the oxygen from the triglycerides producing a mix of linear paraffins, CO2 and water. Then, the product of the first stage is isomerized, always in presence of hydrogen, in order to branch the linear chains for improving the cold flow properties of the final products. Thus, HVO are mixtures of paraffinic hydrocarbons, free of sulphur and aromatics and with a very high cetane number. The hydrocarbons created are similar to existing diesel fuel components which allows blending in any desired ratio without any concerns regarding fuel quality.

Figure 1. Triglyceride hidrogenation (extracted from Reference 4)

Other term used to refer to HVO is “Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids” (HEFA).
Other terms used to refer to the main HVO product are “Hydrogenation Derived Renewable Diesel” (HDRD), “Non Ester Renewable Diesel”, “Renewable Hydrocarbon Diesel”, “Hydro-generated Biodiesel” (HBD), “Green Diesel”.
The European standard EN 15940 uses the definition ”Paraffinic Diesel Fuel from Hydrotreatment”.

The term HVO emerged in last decade when only vegetable oils (e.g. rapeseed, soybean and corn oil) were used as feedstocks. Today, more and more of HVO is produced from industrial waste (tall oil and fats) and used cooking oils. Thus, HVO is no longer accurate describing the origin of the fuel. However, it cannot be changed easily since it is common in the European regulation, fuel standards and biofuel quality recommendations. Also, “Hydrotreated” referring to fuel processing should be preferred instead of ”Hydrogenated” as the latter is commonly linked to manufacturing of margarine.

The main product of the HVO process is diesel. However, it has to be noted that an HVO plant is a type of biorefinery and the production of a wide range of products is possible. Apart from diesel, an HVO facility can be used to produce jet fuel, naptha and GPLs.

Since HVO are hydrocarbons, they meet conventional diesel fuel requirements:
- EN 15940
This standard covers also synthetic Fischer-Tropsch products GTL, BTL and CTL. Before that, paraffinic diesel fuel was specified by CEN Technical Specification TS 15940:2012 and CEN Workshop Agreement CWA 15940:2009.
- EN 590, EN 16734, EN 16709
They are a family of standards published by the European Committee for Standardization that describes the physical properties that automotive diesel fuels B7 (EN 590), B10 (EN 16734), B20 and B30 (EN 16709) must meet if it is to be sold in the European Union and several other European countries.
They do not take any position on how and from what feedstock fuel is processed and allows HVO without any limit.
- ASTM D975
It is a standard for diesel fuel oils suitable for various types of diesel engines. There are seven different grades in this standard and renewable hydrocarbon diesel fulfil No 2-D Grade.
- The FAME specifications (EN 14214, ASTM D 6751) do not apply for HVO.

Co-processing
Part of the share of the HVO market belongs to companies doing co-processing. It is a technique allowing for HVO production using the desulfurization unit where vegetal oils are directly mixed with fossil diesel. This process is much easier to implement than pure HVO production and has also lower CAPEX. It uses the hydrogen produced in the fossil refining units thus limiting the sourcing needs. However, it requires the use of already refined oils which, in turns, increases the feedstock price. At the same time, HVO is already blended into the final product so it cannot be sold as pure HVO or used for improving the diesel quality by blending in higher amounts.

Figure 2. Typical HydroFlex™ configuration for co-processing of renewable and fossil feeds (extracted from Reference 5)

REFERENCES
1 Neste Renewable Diesel Handbook.
2 H. Aatola, M. Larmi, T. Sarjovaara: Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as a Renewable Diesel Fuel: Trade-off between NOx, Particulate Emission, and Fuel Consumption of a Heavy Duty Engine. 2008 SAE International.
3 Is HVO the Holy Grail of the world biodiesel market? Greenea Team, 2014.
4 Ryze Renewables website: Technology.
5 Haldor Topsoe website: Hydroflex.

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