Clean Transport: satisfying the need for low-carbon fuels

The global transport sector is particularly challenging to decarbonise.

A situation that is due, in part, to its current reliance on carbon intensive liquid fuels, coupled with an increasing demand for transport services.

Low-carbon fuels, fuels that deliver greenhouse gas savings, biofuels, other renewable fuels, hydrogen, and recycled carbon fuels: they will all play a key role in reducing emissions.

There are reductions that will be made by targeting the existing fleet and transport sectors which cannot currently be easily electrified, such as the aviation, maritime and heavy goods sectors.

The UK was a first mover in establishing a regulatory regime for renewable fuels.

Low-carbon fuels have been central to greening UK transport for more than a decade, supported through the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) scheme. The RTFO has been particularly successful in promoting waste-derived biofuels and has set a framework for promoting an ever-widening range of fuels, including renewable hydrogen and recycled carbon fuels.

In 2019, the use of low-carbon fuel supplied under the RTFO saved almost 5.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions – the equivalent of taking 2.5 million combustion engine-powered cars off the road.

Hydrogen

Hydrogen can be converted into various forms of energy, such as electrical power, heat, and transport fuels.

It has a wide range of potential decarbonisation uses across the whole energy system – energy storage, industrial power and applications, residential and commercial heat, and transport.

The UK is at the forefront of hydrogen technology development across a range of transport modes, and is supported by significant government investment schemes, including the Tees Valley multi-modal hydrogen transport hub.

Biofuels and recycled carbon fuels

Biofuels are liquid or gaseous fuels derived from biomass and are a key component in the effort to use renewable feedstocks to create a low-carbon economy.

Wastes and residues can contribute to biofuels, with the most common wastes including used cooking oil, dry and wet manure, municipal organic waste, waste agricultural products such as sugar beet tops and tails, and sewage sludge.

The development of biofuels has been supported in the UK for over a decade, principally by the RTFO. Renewable fuels supplied under the RTFO currently contribute around a third of the savings required for the UK’s transport carbon budget.

In 2019, over two-thirds (69%) of renewable fuels reported under the RTFO were made from wastes and around four fifths (79%) of biodiesel reported was made from used cooking oil.

Sustainable aviation fuel

The UK is active in the development and uptake of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).

It is supporting the sector through incentives, capital funding, investment in research and development, as well as wider policy interventions that aim to create a strong domestic industry.

Recent analysis commissioned by the UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) shows that the UK sector is well placed to continue as a global SAF market leader.

The DfT are proposing that a minimum level of SAF be included in all jet fuel supplied in the UK. This will create ideal market conditions for the commercial production of SAF together with support for the necessary technological development and feedstocks.

Clean Transport: meeting the need for low-carbon fuels

In the air, on the ground, at sea: making the change to low-carbon fuels is one of the greatest challenges in the global transport sector.

Yet it is one that the UK is in a unique position to rise to with its proven track record in developing and implementing fuels other than ‘conventional’ fossil-based alternatives.

A range of heavy transport vehicles and non-road mobile machinery that run on biofuels are on the market in the UK, supporting the supply of non-fossil fuels throughout the country.

Further investment in fuelling stations and fuel manufacture will be required in the coming decades and the technologies for developing and distributing these fuels are being shared by UK companies throughout the world.

See if you could benefit from the UK’s assistance in meeting the growing demand for low-carbon fuels.