With alternative fuels into the future -
ABZ as a partner for special solutions

Based on climate change, the energy transition and the Ukraine war, alternative fuels are coming to the fore in order to meet the 1.5°C target of the Paris Agreement, which Germany signed as binding under international law, and at the same time to reduce Germany's dependence on fossil fuels such as diesel and natural gas. Vegetable oil (and biodiesel) is stored solar energy and, besides petroleum, the only already liquid energy source on earth. The "plate-tank conflict" publicly discussed for biofuels does not apply to oil plants, since oil plants always produce energy and protein together during the physiological separation of plant oil and oil cake (pressing process). Oil plants grow in all parts of the world: underground (peanut), on the ground (soybean, rapeseed, sunflower), on bushes (Jatropha curcas) and trees (oil palm, olive, etc.). All oil plants are flowering plants that induce insect life and increase biodiversity.
 

As pure vegetable oils produced in accordance with DIN 51605 or DIN 51623, or transesterified as EN 14214 biodiesel, these domestically produced biofuels can replace diesel as a drive for generators and CHP (combined heat and power) units. Conventional standard diesel engines must be technically modified to run on biodiesel and pure DIN vegetable oils. As a technology partner for an individual adaptation of engine mechanics and digital software, ABZ cooperates for this purpose with the Bavarian companies dts-design (www.dts-design.eu) and Vereinigte Werkstätten für Pflanzenöltechnologie, Dr. Gruber/Gruber GbR (VWP, www.vwp-europe.com). Over the past ten years, dts-design and VWP have developed biodiesel- and vegetable oil-compatible diesel engines based on modern serial direct-injection diesel engines with pump-nozzle or common-rail high-pressure injection. To achieve higher degrees of freedom and maximum energy security in fuel supply, especially in remote areas or on islands, the development is designed for multi-fuel capability. In so-called "flex-fuel engines", pure DIN vegetable oils, biodiesel, diesel or fuel blends can be used for stationary emergency power, electricity and heat supply with the aid of individual software architectures.

In terms of fuel availability, EN14214 biodiesel would currently be the choice in Germany over DIN-51605 or DIN-51623 vegetable oil. Under pro-fossil fuel legislation, biogenic fuels and the formerly large network of decentralized oil mills have been destroyed except for a few suppliers. Vegetable oil volumes originating in 2021 were immediately sold out after the start of the Ukraine war, and seeding for 2022 was already set for 9/2021. Only increased sowing of oil crops in 2022 can improve the supply from September 2023.
 

Most recently, ABZ supplied five DIN 51623 jatropha oil-fueled generators with a total output of 1,625 kWel. for the Galapagos island of Isabela. In spring 2022, an MTU 16V4000G34F was converted for emergency power operation with EN14214 biodiesel.