Cepsa begins supply of 100% renewable diesel for professional customers in Spain

Photo: Cepsa

Cepsa announced Nov. 8 that it has started supplying 100 percent renewable diesel, also known as hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), to professional customers, both at its service stations and in direct sales to the facilities of several companies to contribute to decarbonizing their activity, offering them sustainable solutions adapted to their needs. The energy company has already started selling this second-generation biofuel to its professional customers (carriers and fleets) at a service station in Madrid, Spain, near the Vallecas neighborhood, and it will be available at three other strategic locations before the end of the year.

By 2024, the company’s goal is to supply renewable diesel at 20 stations in its network, located in Spain’s main corridors and logistics hubs. “At Cepsa, we remain committed to sustainable mobility, and we want to move towards the future by achieving a tangible impact in the present,” said Cedric Vigneau, Cepsa’s fleet director. “That is why we are going to supply HVO in strategic locations for our professional customers, as part of our aim to help them advance in the decarbonization of their operations by offering them this high-quality biofuel.” José Emiliano Pardo, Cepsa’s director of direct sales, added, “We are supplying HVO directly to road freight and services companies to support our customers in their decarbonization process. This is how we continue to promote sustainable mobility as one of the main pillars of our ‘Positive Motion’ strategy.” The company has already received interest in this renewable fuel from several customers, including large logistics companies and companies from different sectors.

Throughout its lifecycle (from production to use), Cepsa said HVO achieves a 90 percent CO2-emission reduction compared to traditional fuels.

Moreover, the chemical composition of this biofuel is analogous to the traditional fossil fuels used in today’s diesel engines, so no modifications must be made to them or to the storage and distribution infrastructure. Cepsa produces this second-generation biofuel at its La Rábida Energy Park in Huelva, Spain, from organic waste such as used cooking oils and agricultural waste, thereby promoting the circular economy.

Furthermore, in order to guarantee supply to its land, sea and air transport customers, Cepsa is going to develop, together with Bio-Oils, the largest second-generation biofuel plant in southern Europe, with an investment of up to 1 billion euros (USD$1.08 billion).

This facility, which will be opened in 2026 in Palos de la Frontera, Huelva, will have a flexible production capacity of 500,000 tons of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). After successfully carrying out various tests using renewable biofuels in air, sea and rail transport, Cepsa said this project represents a new step forward for the company in its objective of facilitating the decarbonization of heavy transport by producing green molecules.

As established in its Positive Motion strategy, the company aims to become a reference in the energy transition and lead the manufacture of renewable fuels in Spain and Portugal by 2030 with an annual production capacity of 2.5 million tons and the production of green hydrogen with an electrolysis capacity of 2 gigawatts.