physics

Hydrotreated vegetable oil

Hydrotreated vegetable oil is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hydrotreated vegetable oil rather than just read about it. In short: Hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) is a biofuel made by the hydrocracking or hydrogenation of vegetable oil or animal fat. Hydrocracking breaks big molecules into smaller ones using hydrogen while hydrogenation eliminates double bonds by adding hydrogen to the molecules.

Key takeaways

Hydrotreated vegetable oil belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hydrotreated vegetable oil to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hydrotreated vegetable oil from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) is a biofuel made by the hydrocracking or hydrogenation of vegetable oil or animal fat. Hydrocracking breaks big molecules into smaller ones using hydrogen while hydrogenation eliminates double bonds by adding hydrogen to the molecules. These methods can be used to create substitutes for gasoline, diesel, propane, kerosene and other chemical feedstock. Diesel fuel produced from these sources is sometimes referred to as green diesel or renewable diesel. Diesel fuel created by hydrotreating is distinct from the biodiesel made through esterification.

Feedstock The majority of plant and animal oils are triglycerides, suitable for refining. Refinery feedstock includes "tall oil, [...] sludge palm oil, used cooking oil [yellow grease], microbial oils, algae oils, oils originating from yeast or mold products, oils originating from biomass, rapeseed oil, canola oil, colza oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil, hemp oil, olive oil, linseed oil, cottonseed oil, mustard oil, palm oil, arachis oil, castor oil, coconut oil, carinata oil, animal fats such as suet, tallow, blubber, recycled alimentary fats, starting materials produced by genetic engineering, insect oil and biological starting materials produced by microbes such as algae and bacteria". One type of algae, Botryococcus braunii produces a different type of oil, known as a triterpene, which is transformed into alkanes by a different process. Insect oil is being investigated as a feedstock for the production of hydrotreated vegetable oil. This oil is extracted from insect larvae, particularly those of the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens), typically following a preliminary drying step. The recovered lipid is then subjected to a catalytic hydrogenation process to produce a paraffinic fuel with properties similar to those of fossil diesel. Animal fats are also used as feedstocks for the production of hydrotreated vegetable oil. These fats can be extracted through three main industrial methods: dry rendering, wet rendering, and low temperature wet rendering. The low temperature wet rendering process, which involves liquefying the fat at or below 100 °C (212 °F), yields animal fat that is better suited for biofuel production. By limiting thermal degradation, this process reduces the formation of nitrogen containing compounds such as amides, amines, and ammonia, which are typically more abundant in fats produced via dry rendering. These nitrogenous compounds are considered undesirable because they can poison the catalysts employed during the hydrotreatment stage of biofuel synthesis. The feedstock used for hydrotreatment may also comprise esters obtained from the transesterification of fatty acid esters or the esterification of fatty acids present in vegetable oils and animal fats.

Chemical analysis

Synthesis The production of hydrotreated vegetable oils is based on introducing hydrogen molecules into the raw fat or oil molecule. This process is associated with the reduction of the carbon compound. When hydrogen is used to react with triglycerides, different types of reactions can occur, and different resultant products are combined. The second step of the process involves converting the triglycerides/fatty acids to hydrocarbons by hydrodeoxygenation (removing oxygen as water) and/or decarboxylation (removing oxygen as carbon dioxide). A formulaic example of this is C3H5(RCOO)3 + 12 H2 ⟶ C3H8 + 3 RCH3 + 6 H2O

Chemical composition The chemical formula for HVO Diesel is CnH2n+2

Chemical properties Hydrotreated oils are characterized by very good low temperature properties. The cloud point also occurs below −40 °C (−40 °F). Therefore, these fuels are suitable for the preparation of premium fuel with a high cetane number and excellent low temperature properties. The cold filter plugging point (CFPP) virtually corresponds to the cloud point value, which is why the value of the cloud point is significant in the case of hydrotreated oils.

Comparison to biodiesel

Both HVO diesel (green diesel) and biodiesel are made from the same feedstock such as vegetable oil or animal fat. However the processing technologies and chemical makeup of the two fuels differ. The chemical reaction commonly used to produce biodiesel is known as transesterification. The production of biodiesel also makes glycerol, but the production of HVO does not. Neste has published the differences between biodiesel and renewable diesel (HVO) which are summarized in the table below.

Commercialization Various stages of converting renewable hydrocarbon fuels produced by hydrotreating is done throughout energy industry. Some commercial examples of vegetable oil refining are:

Repsol NEXA 100% renovable Neste NExBTL Topsoe HydroFlex technology Axens Vegan technology H-Bio, the ConocoPhilips process UOP/Eni Ecofining process. Neste is the largest manufacturer, producing ca. 3.3 million tonnes annually (2023). Neste completed their first NExBTL plant in the summer 2007 and the second one in 2009. Petrobras planned to use 256 megalitres (1,610,000 bbl) of vegetable oils in the production of H-Bio fuel in 2007. ConocoPhilips is processing 42,000 US gallons per day (1,000 bbl/d) of vegetable oil. Other companies working on the commercialization and industrialization of renewable hydrocarbons and biofuels include Neste, REG Synthetic Fuels, LLC, ENI, UPM Biofuels, Diamond Green Diesel partnered with countries across the globe. Manufacturers of these renewable diesels report greenhouse gas emissions reductions of 60-95% compared to fossil diesel, as well as better cold-flow properties to work in colder climates. In addition, all of these green diesels can be introduced into any diesel engine or infrastructure without many mechanical modifications at any ratio with petroleum-based diesels. Renewable diesel from vegetable oil is a growing substitute for petroleum. California fleets used over 200 million US gallons (760,000 m3) of renewable diesel in 2017. The California Air Resources Board predicts that over 2 billion US gallons (7,600,000 m3) of fuel will be consumed in the state under its Low Carbon Fuel Standard requirements in the next ten years. Fleets operating on Renewable Diesel from various refiners and feedstocks are reported to see lower emissions, reduced maintenance costs, and nearly identical experience when driving with this fuel.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hydrotreated vegetable oil

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hydrotreated vegetable oil claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hydrotreated vegetable oil before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hydrotreated vegetable oil ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hydrotreated vegetable oil

In research: Hydrotreated vegetable oil appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hydrotreated vegetable oil in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hydrotreated vegetable oil is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Biofuels, Oil refining, Renewable energy technology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hydrotreated vegetable oil outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hydrotreated vegetable oil in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hydrotreated vegetable oil means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hydrotreated vegetable oil out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hydrotreated vegetable oil in simple terms?

Why does Hydrotreated vegetable oil matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hydrotreated vegetable oil?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hydrotreated vegetable oil.