An article in the November issue of The Construction Index magazine, and reproduced online here, exposed growing doubt and confusion surrounding the ecological credentials of hydrotreated vegetable oil as a replacement for DERV fuel.
The Environment Agency has the use of HVO under review and discourages it; Balfour Beatty – the UK’s biggest construction contractor – has effectively banned it; and others, like VolkerWessels say that they will not use it.
Our article set out in detail Balfour Beatty’s concerns about the sustainability of HVO – even HVO with official sustainability accreditation means that, somewhere else, someone else is using unsustainable virgin palm oil because there is only so much used cooking oil to go around. (You can also read Balfour Beatty's publicly stated position in full here.)
Naturally our article prompted a response from suppliers of HVO, insisting that there product was fine since they have the appropriate certification and approvals. They would say that, wouldn’t they?
Then Callum Mackintosh, president of the Scottish Plant Owners Association, sent us what we take to be a more independent defence of HVO, which we feel is worth sharing. He suggests that Balfour Beatty’s position is more about economics than ecology – HVO is expensive.
He writes: “I note the recent article on the Balfour Beatty and Environment Agency take on matters regarding the traceability and sustainability of HVO. Their concerns are not new by any means. Palm oil content has always been an issue for HVO. But our understanding is that there is a difference between what is called HVO and HVO Green D+. The Green D+ variant does not contain any virgin crops (i.e. virgin palm oil), it is entirely made from waste materials like used cooking oils, tallows and other waste oil.
“Balfour Beatty agrees with the Royal academy of Engineering that ‘The carbon footprint and other sustainability aspects of biofuels should be evaluated on a life cycle basis across full supply chains to avoid shifting the burdens from one part of the life cycle or supply chain to another.’
“If that is good enough logic for biofuels why not apply the same logic to the production and use of electric vehicles and the manufacturing of lithium batteries? Accept it or not, rare earth metals are being mined to support the increased use of EV vehicles. The process of mining has been widely criticised from an environmental point of view as well as justified allegations of slave/cheap labour.
“Biofuels and the supply chain related to the production of EV vehicles should be subject to the very same scrutiny.
“Personally, I'm very conscious of the consequences our actions and the demands placed on tropical climates like Indonesia and Malaysia where most of the world's palm oil comes from.
“I'm also conscious of the impact our actions have at home and find it ludicrous to accept that contractors would go from using HVO to not using HVO and would instead rather use diesel because of the possible negative environmental impact of HVO. Does reducing CO2, NOx and particulate matter by up to 90%, 30% and 86% respectively count for nothing? Ludicrous because diesel is known to not only be detrimental to our environment but also to our health.
“I suspect the HVO position is actually based on a much simpler decision, a commercial and financial decision.
“Diesel is cheaper than HVO.
“The government removed the red diesel rebate, forcing our industry to use white diesel. It has failed to provide a rebate on alternative cleaner, renewable, sustainable fuels. I suspect contractors are finding it increasingly more challenging to afford to be environmentally responsible and are choosing diesel over HVO to save money as all projects and services delivered, no matter if it’s a hospital, a new bridge or a housing scheme need to remain affordable.
“The impact of the government’s policy of taxing greener alternatives at the same rate as diesel has essentially been to increase pollution. Making ‘being green’ commercially unfeasible for the masses, for example HVO GreenD+ is 45 pence per litre more expensive than diesel.
“Why should we wait years for a study on HVO sustainability/life-cycle and continue to use diesel? By the time any real study is complete (and palm oil supply vs deforestation has been studied for decades now) we'll be well into the hydrogen era and will be actively replacing diesel plant with hydrogen plant.
“In fact, there's some irony: we'll be happy and have been for many years to export our old diesel plant to foreign shores and let them burn diesel in our old machines, increasing pollution levels in the developing world. What we should now be doing is looking at hydrogen combustion retrofits for existing plant so that we can create a circular approach to the life span of plant and machinery.
“In the meantime, we should absolutely be using HVO now as it is surely better for the environment than diesel. We can make an overnight contribution to achieving net zero overnight and there is zero Capex cost for us to do so. So unquestionably, the government should be incentivising industry to make this green switch by making HVO and other less polluting alternatives cheaper than diesel. With a seemingly more stable cabinet in place I’d like to believe that some foresight will be shown by the new chancellor on this matter and especially hope that the Office for Budget Responsibility’s prediction of a fuel duty hike in March next year does not come true.”
Balfour Beatty responded to this article with the following statement: “As set out in our fuel hierarchy and our sustainability strategy, Building New Futures, we are committed to phasing out diesel and other fossil fuels by using renewable and other low carbon intensity sources.
“Our position on hydrotreated vegetable oil has been carefully considered and is not reflective of any commercial or financial decision, but of our determination to act responsibly and consider the full implications of our actions – making sure that we are not solving one environmental challenge by creating another.”
All views welcome: email editor@theconstructionindex.co.uk
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