New reporting of HVO volumes by German government enhances blending-market transparency

After a long interruption, Germany’s Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) has published biofuels consumption figures up to August 2025.

For the first time, the data also includes renewable diesel, also known as hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), volumes. 

BAFA thus meets the call for greater transparency in the blending market that the Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen e. V. (UFOP) has repeatedly issued.

In August, biodiesel consumption increased just over 3 percent on the previous month, reaching 202,900 metric tons while still falling 3 percent short of the previous year’s figure.

The HVO volume amounted to approximately 10,340 tons, around 12 percent below the July level.

Since at the same time, consumption of diesel fuel decreased 8 percent, the HVO share in blends rose 0.7 percent to 7.3 percent.

In the first eight months of 2025, the use of biodiesel for blending totaled just under 1.6 million tons, a decrease of around 2 percent on the same period last year, according to research by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH).

The HVO volume reached 112,888 tons, also slightly below the previous year’s 117,500 tons.

Consumption of diesel fuel in the period January to August added up to roughly 20.2 million tons, exceeding the previous year’s level by nearly 2 percent.

Against this background, the incorporation rate decreased 0.2 percent year-on-year, falling to 7.3 percent.

The UFOP has justified its call for transparency with the expected increase in importance of HVO as a so-called drop-in fuel, since the incorporation rate of biodiesel in diesel fuel is capped at 7 percent by volume.

HVO, on the other hand, can be blended at rates up to 26 percent without violating the DIN EN 590 diesel-fuel standard.

The rising greenhouse-gas (GHG) quota obligations in the draft bill currently under discussion to amend GHG-quota legislation—up to 53 percent in 2040—together with the concurrent ramp-up of e-mobility primarily support the increased use of HVO.