HVO Products at DB Cargo UK

Powering your rail services with 100% renewable fuels.

Did you know that rail is one of the safest and most eco-friendly means of transport?

A freight train consumes as little as a third of the energy required by a truck and saves more than 80 % of the carbon dioxide emissions. This means that rail transport provides a basis for reducing CO2 by means of a modal shift. But this is still not ecofriendly enough for us.

We‘re pleased to offer our customers a range of HVO products, a logistics solution that powers our locomotives with a 100% renewable Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil fuel.

What is Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil and its benefits to powering locomotives?

HVO or Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil is a FAME-free and fossil-free environmentally-friendly alternative to mineral diesel. It is synthetically made through the hydrotreatment of either vegetable oils or animal fats and is manufactured from 100 per cent renewable raw materials. Crops which are used to produce HVO fuel bypass damage to the environment, the natural ecosystem and the drive for global deforestation. It is fully biodegradable and its delivery mileage can be carbon off set. It is a ‘drop-in’ replacement for standard ULSD fuel and meets EN 15940:2016 specifications.

Our Products:

HVO100

Our HVO100 product allows the locomotive operating on your rail logistics service to be powered 100% by HVO fuel only. The benefits of switching to a ‘HVO100’ product can be summarised as follows:

Reduces net Green House Gas (GHG) carbon dioxide emissions by up to 90%
Reduces particulate matter emissions by up to 30 per cent
Reduces hydrocarbon emissions by up to 30 per cent
Reduces Carbon Monoxide emissions by up to 25 per cent
Reduces Nitrogen Oxide emissions by up to 10 per cent
Is fully biodegradable, renewable and sustainable
Manufactured from 100% renewable & sustainable waste derived raw materials
Will allow us to collectively reduce our carbon footprint and actively contribute to UK Government’s net zero target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

HVO50

Our HVO50 product fuels our locomotives with a blend of HVO with standard ULSD. A 50 per cent HVO / ULSD blend. Using our HVO50 product would eliminate up to 45 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions.

HVO Brochure

PDF | 4.9 MB

Collaborating with our customers on Decarbonisation

We're the first Rail Freight Operator in the UK to successfully carry out live trials using HVO fuel across our fleet. Our ‘carbon-busting’ Class 66 locomotive fuelled with 100% renewable Hydro-treated Vegetable Oil (HVO) made a landmark journey on the UK rail network on Wednesday, December 16th, 2020. The service transported a consignment of long-welded steel track from British Steel’s plant in Scunthorpe to Network Rail’s depot in Eastleigh, Hampshire.