Biogenic fuels for DEUTZ engines

One important building block for reducing carbon dioxide emissions and conserving fossil resources is the substitution of petroleum-based fuels with biofuels. Fuels from renewable, sustainably produced organic raw materials enable a largely closed CO2 cycle, because the plants from which the biofuel is produced extract CO2 out of the air while growing. Therefore, biofuels (compared to fossil fuels) in large part compensate the greenhouse gas effect of the CO2 emissions generated by combustion in standard engines. As a condition for access to the market in the European Union, biofuels must meet statutory requirements regarding sustainability – including cultivation – to receive a certification. These requirements are enshrined in the EU directive 2009/28/EC which regulates the “Promotion of the Use of Energy from Renewable Sources”. These also include proof of greenhouse gas reduction, which must be at least 65 percent lower compared with fossil fuel by 2021. In Germany, in the meantime, an average greenhouse gas reduction of over 80 percent has been reached. As the transport sector and agriculture are being challenged to contribute to greenhouse gas reduction, not least as a result of the decisions of the climate protection agreement in Paris of December 2015, biofuels are being touted as one of the alternatives alongside improving engine efficiency. This means that considerable CO2 savings can also be achieved with existing engines which contributes to climate protection.

In addition, rising fossil fuel prices, as well as national tax advantages and biofuel quotas favour a growing global demand for biofuels. Currently biodiesel is mainly used as diesel fuel/biodiesel blends, but also as clean fuels in Germany and the rest of Europe, but also many other non-European countries such as the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Biodiesel or FAME (fatty acid methyl ester) consists of so-called transesterified vegetable oils that have been adjusted to have the properties of diesel fuel. In Germany, rapeseed oil is usually the raw material base, so it is often referred to as rapeseed oil methyl ester (RME).

Biodiesel can be used in suitable engines in its pure form (B100) or as a blend with petrodiesel such as B7.

Of course, all DEUTZ engines are approved for the diesel fuel/biodiesel blends permissible in Europe and the U.S. as per EN 590 (up to 7%) and ASTM D 975 (up to 5%). In addition, there are also a great number of engine approvals for Tier 4, EU IV and V for higher biodiesel mixture proportions (EN 16734 / EN 16709 / ASTM D 7467) and for clean fuels according to EN 14214.

E-fuels

E-fuels are synthetic fuels made from water and carbon dioxide (CO2) using electricity. Depending on the fuel produced (gaseous/liquid) this process is referred to either as power-to-gas (PtG) or power-to-liquid (PtL).

In the long-term, the production of e-diesel on the basis of renewable electricity will allow a climate-friendly, CO2-neutral operation of engines.

The principle here is that when generating the fuel, the same amount of atmospheric CO2 is bound up as is later emitted in the combustion process. To achieve this, electrolysis of water powered by regeneratively generated electricity is set up to produce oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen thus released reacts in the next stage with CO2 to form a synthetic gas. This process can yield both gaseous (power-to-gas) and liquid (power-to-liquid) fuel.

The advantage is that, the existing infrastructure (filling stations) can be utilised to provide the required energy quantities for industrial applications as a liquid or gaseous fuel, in contrast to pure electromobility. The energy density of such a fuel is considerably higher than in batteries of the current industrial standard.

HVO

Hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) is a paraffinic diesel fuel produced from renewable resources such as vegetable oils or animal fats. It is a cleaner fuel, reducing dependence on fossil fuels and cutting CO2 emissions. It is a sustainable alternative to fossil diesel fuel and can be used in almost all modern DEUTZ engines without modification. There are no restrictions on the use in blends. Typically, blends of up to 26% HVO in diesel are available at public gas stations, which fall under the current EN 590 diesel standard.

HVO is produced industrially by hydrogenating vegetable and animal oils and fats (called triglycerides or fatty acids) in a refinery. The process is similar to the conventional refining of crude oil, but there are a number of steps required in production that may differ. In principle, all types of oils and fats can be used. HVO is produced from used cooking oils and residual and waste materials, while FAME is produced from oil-rich food and animal feeds, including rapeseed, sunflower and soybean oil. So this is not a debate about food versus fuel, but a talk about advanced biofuels.

Liquid gas

Liquefied petroleum gas or LPG is the term used to describe propane-butane mixtures that are liquid at room temperature and low compression (< 10 bar). The benefits of LPG are its high energy density in the gas tank and the reduced CO2 emissions during combustion in the engine compared to diesel engines of a comparable size.

LPG is typically created during petroleum refining. It is also produced during the manufacture of HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oils) as a bio-LPG with a very low greenhouse gas emission potential.

Here, DEUTZ has developed its G 2.2 and G 2.9 series, which will be on the market from 2019 and comply with EU level V.