AGQM releases new B100 guidelines for biodiesel use as pure, unblended fuel

For the first time, the German biodiesel quality-management association AGQM has released a guideline for 100 percent biodiesel (B100) intended for use as a pure fuel in heavy-duty vehicles.

The AGQM guideline for a B100 specification defines product properties of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) for use as a neat, unblended fuel.

These are intended to ensure the functionality of engines and vehicles and to enable manufacturers to release further vehicles for use with B100.

Click image to access guideline

The new B100 guideline by AGQM combines the less stringent EN14214 standard, which is typically only used as a specification for biodiesel as a blend component, and the requirements from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) regarding low sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and water content.

“The guideline can be used by OEMs to approve vehicles for B100 and, at the same time, by manufacturers or customers, especially for business-to-business contracts for the supply of high-quality biodiesel for use as B100,” Richard Wicht, managing director of AGQM, told Biobased Diesel Daily. “The goal in the end is the use of more B100 and thus more greenhouse-gas (GHG) savings.”

The increased use of biodiesel as a pure fuel in applications where liquid fuels cannot be replaced in the short term is an important contribution to tackling the climate crisis.

Road transport accounts for about two-thirds of the EU’s total transport-related CO2 emissions.

A rapid reduction in this area is therefore particularly important to meet EU climate targets, and the use of all available options is necessary, AGQM stated.

“In particular, the use of GHG-reduced fuels plays an important role in the existing fleet, but also in areas that are difficult to electrify such as road freight transport,” the organization added.

Currently, various engines, commercial vehicles, buses and tractors are approved for use with B100 or B20/B30 and are listed in a corresponding approval list published by AGQM, MVaK (German Waste-based Biofuels Association), UFOP (Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants) and VDB (Association of the German Biofuel Industry). “Nevertheless, the use of B100 is sometimes considered ‘critical’ due to the continuously tightened emission limits,” AGQM stated. “The reason for this is the possible content of ash formers in biodiesel, such as alkaline and alkaline earth metals as well as phosphorus. Although these are already limited in the biodiesel standard EN14214, the limits are considered too high by some engine and vehicle manufacturers. With the introduction of Euro 7, the emission limits will further be tightened and the functionality of the exhaust-aftertreatment system will probably have to be guaranteed over the entire lifecycle. This sets new kinds of demands on the exhaust-gas aftertreatment system, which can only be met through the consistent use of particularly high-quality fuels.” This guideline is therefore intended to define product properties of FAME for use as a pure fuel that go beyond the requirements of EN14214.

The defined limit values are intended to ensure the functional capability of engines and vehicles, and of their exhaust-gas aftertreatment systems.

At the same time, this creates a basis on which the engine and vehicle manufacturers can release their vehicles for use with B100. In addition to the approvals by the manufacturers, the quality of the biodiesel used is a decisive factor if vehicles are operated with B100.

The requirements of the guideline were derived from the annual unannounced investigations of German and Austrian biodiesel producers and traders who are members of AGQM.

The results of the investigations are published anonymously in AGQM’s annual quality report.

It has been shown that the FAME quality produced is significantly better than that prescribed by EN14214. “Therefore, when purchasing biodiesel, make sure that the producer or trader is a member of AGQM,” Wicht said. “This way, you can ensure that they comply with the AGQM quality-management system and that more than the current requirements of EN 14214 are met across production, transport as well as trade.” The new B100 guideline, approval list and quality reports can be found on the AGQM homepage under the “downloads” section.