OREANDA-NEWS. August 09, 2013. Neste Oil is part of a fleet demonstration program on a new blend of diesel fuel in Coburg, Germany. The aim of the program is to introduce to the market a fuel with a significantly higher proportion of renewable content than current diesel blends. The German Minister of Transport, Peter Ramsauer, will kick off the project today in Coburg.

The new blend, known as Diesel R33, contains 26% NExBTL renewable diesel, an HVO-type fuel produced by Neste Oil, 7% conventional biodiesel (FAME) produced from used cooking oil, and 67% fossil diesel. Thanks to the 26% share of HVO-type diesel the new blend offers by far the highest biofuel content of any diesel blend that fulfills and exceeds the requirements for diesel fuels used in the European Union.  The maximum limit for adding FAME-type biofuel to fossil fuel under the EU's Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) and the EN 590 diesel standard is 7%.

"Unlike conventional biodiesel, there are no technical limitations to blending Neste Oil's NExBTL renewable diesel, which opens up the potential for creating  diesel blends that have high bio content and result in lower GHG and tailpipe emissions," says Kaisa Hietala, Neste Oil's Vice President, Renewable Fuels.

The one-year Diesel R33 demonstration project will include around 280 different types of vehicles - such as buses, cars, and trucks - and will test the performance of the new blend in traffic and the contribution it makes to reducing tailpipe emissions and greenhouse gas emissions.

The Diesel R33 project is a follow-up to a trial conducted in Coburg and Munich in 2010-2011. The results from this trial showed that the fuel, produced from 100% renewable inputs, is ideally suited to urban use and can make a significant contribution to reducing tailpipe emissions. Read more about the previous project.

The Diesel R33 project is financed by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Public Health (StMUG), the European Union, and various other partners. In addition to Neste Oil, the project's partners include German universities, research institutions, automotive manufacturers, and other companies:

Coburg University of Applied Sciences 

ASG - Analytik - Service  Gesellschaft

Autohaus Heinrich-G. Bender GmbH & Co. KG

Bundesverband Freier Tankstellen e.V. (BFT)

Coburger Entsorgungs- und Baubetriebe (CEB)

Continental AG

Daimler AG

ERC Emissions-Reduzierungs-Concepte GmbH

HUK-Coburg-Allgemeine Versicherung AG

LASCO Umformtechnik GmbH

Steinbeis Transferzentrum Biokraftstoffe und Umweltmesstechnik

Stadtischen Werke Uberlandwerke Coburg GmbH

TECOSOL GmbH

Johann Heinrich von Thunen Institute

Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Crops - UFOP

Volkswagen AG

Erik Walther GmbH & Co. KG

Sustainability is an essential part of the project, and the sustainability of all the raw materials used will be monitored thoroughly throughout the project.