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Dear Readers,

No, this is not about elitist sailing clubs or problems with newcomers - although I do feel a bit elitist since I got my membership card for the Klimadiesel-90-Club. Because that means I belong to the small group of people who can fill up with synthetic diesel fuel in Kiel.

Unlike fuel blended with biodiesel, synthetic diesel does not absorb water and can be stored for up to ten years without any biocides. Goodbye diesel pest! That alone is reason enough to lug the fuel on board in canisters instead of conveniently filling up at the harbour petrol station. What's more, the miracle fuel burns cleaner than conventional diesel, hardly smells at all and reduces CO₂ emissions by 90 per cent.

Hydrogenated vegetable oil, or HVO100 for short, is the official name of the fuel. A diesel substitute synthesised from vegetable waste and leftovers from the food industry. In short: the Jockel runs on old chip fat and only emits as much CO₂ as the plants have previously absorbed.

However, it's not quite that simple, because the plant-based raw materials can in principle also include palm oil, and then the environmental balance of HVO suddenly no longer looks good at all.

This is also the basis for the Federal Environment Agency's rejection. The authority doubts the sustainability of HVO100 and fears that the waste used to produce petrol could be used elsewhere, for example in the chemical industry. For this reason, the authority has so far refused to authorise pure HVO. The fuel may therefore not be sold at every petrol pump.

However, public fleets may very well run on it. The joke is that with HVO100, the CO₂ emissions of buses, lorries and trains can be drastically reduced without having to invest in new electric vehicles and the appropriate infrastructure. For this reason, the fuel is also available in Kiel, as the waste management company's cars also refuel at the petrol station and thus run almost CO₂-neutrally.

The loophole is called "closed user group" and can also be used by private individuals. Similar to the corner pubs that have been rebranded as smoking clubs, the petrol station becomes a clubhouse. Anyone who is a member of the petrol station operator's climate diesel club can legally fill up with HVO100, aka climate diesel. This immediately makes the old Jockel more climate-friendly and hardly soots at all. The fact that you have to pay around 20 cents per litre more for this is bearable in view of the absolute consumption of around 100 litres per season. What's more, the synthetic fuel is just on a par with premium fossil diesel, which I used to bunker in the hope of reducing the risk of diesel pest. The reduced CO₂ emissions are therefore practically free of charge, and the black rim on the exhaust pipe is also history.

With any luck, the free compulsory membership will only be short-lived, as the Bundestag has called on the government to amend the guidelines with a motion for a resolution so that HVO100 can be sold like conventional diesel. This has long been the case in other European countries such as Sweden and the Netherlands, especially as the HVO100 on offer comes mainly from Neste. The Finnish producer assures that no palm oil is used in the production process.

Anyone who, like me, has already had the sticky bacterial slime of the diesel plague in their petrol tank will long for the day of release - or become a member of the club.

Hauke Schmidt

YACHT Editor Test & Technology

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