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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
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General: HVO - opinions please

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  1.  
    • CommentAuthormitchino
    • CommentTimeMar 28th 2023
     
    I have just found out about HVO - Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil, and how it can replace heating oil. Our boiler is a Worcester Bosch and they are going to be releasing conversion kits this year. It is claimed that HVO is a wonderful green alternative to Kerosene, and is currently similar price wise, with prices to fall below heating oil prices as production ramps up.

    It all sounds great, we'd love to wean ourselves off kerosene, but have so far baulked at the cost and limitations of heat pumps etc, but how great is HVO? Greenwash or Hogwash, the future or a dead duck? Pros and Cons please!
  2.  
    My concern would would be the supply chain. Whilst HVO is produced from waste (recycled) veg.oil it sounds good but once it gets popular and waste supply is insufficient then primary input would be needed to maintain supply, e.g. first use palm oil with all the environmental impacts of that. Think about pellets - they started off processed from waste wood products but soon demand outstripped supply and now trees are cut down just to supply the pellet market.

    If you have to convert your boiler can the boiler be easily converted back should HVO follow the same path as wood pellets?
  3.  
    AIUI HVO is not yet licensed for domestic use, only commercial use, and is currently around 15% more expensive than kerosene. HVO is being trialled in domestic properties at the moment and the tests started in 2020.
  4.  
    Greenwash afaics - there already isn't enough sustainable waste veg oil available to cover the road fuel usage requirements. So fresh veg oil is diverted out of the food chain to be burned, so additional veg oil has to be grown to feed people, and at some point someone clear-fells a rainforest to grow palm oil.

    So even if the HVO people are using sustainable waste oil, the knock-on is more deforestation somewhere else further down in the chain.

    When I looked, the 'sustainable waste oil' was coming in supertankers from the far East and it was rather murky how anyone could tell if it really was waste, or sustainable.

    I'd stay with kerosene, save the extra money up, and put it towards a heatpump or buy shares in a windfarm (or buy carbon offsets or donate it to WWF, whatever feels right!)
    • CommentAuthorSteveZ
    • CommentTimeMar 29th 2023
     
    HVO is already being used as a 'drop-in' replacement for diesel fuel in the heavy transport industry. I enquired about joining the domestic heating trial here in Cornwall, but no spaces left.

    One item about HVO is the shelf life. Unlike kerosene which tends to grow things in it after a year or so, this stuff has a shelf life of years without any deterioration apparently. I wish my oil would stay in the tank long enough to try it.

    I was told that the essential mods are to the jet and the operating pressure - so far, so cheap. Then the need for a new oil tank! Why? Clean the old one out and reuse it. Don't know the reason for a new tank.

    HVO is not seen as long term solution, but a low carbon holding answer for oil users until the next big thing arrives, possibly better ASHPs, Hydrogen for lorries, sodium batteries for cars etc.

    The latest Propane refrigerant heat pumps are looking like an easier replacement the domestic oil boiler market.

    HVO could go the way of the wood pellet farce, I suppose, but we might have developed enough sense to avoid it - what an optimist!

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