DB Cargo UK delivers biomass pellets to Drax power plant in renewable diesel-powered trains

Photo: Drax

All trains DB Cargo UK operates for Drax Group in and out of the U.K.’s largest renewable energy plant near Selby will be powered by environmentally friendly hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), also known as renewable diesel.

Drax Group, the U.K.’s leading producer of renewable energy, has taken the decision to switch to 100 percent renewable diesel fuel as part of its ongoing program to reduce its carbon footprint.

DB Cargo UK currently transports around 4.5 million metric tons of biomass pellets to Drax Power Station each year, operating around 60 trains a week—approximately 3,000 trains a year—to the site.

It is estimated that switching from traditional red diesel to HVO will reduce rail-freight carbon emissions by up to 90 percent, saving over 12,000 tons of carbon each year equivalent to 30 million miles worth of car journeys.

The DB Cargo trains powered on HVO will provide around 57 percent of Drax’s total biomass, helping the global energy leader produce enough renewable electricity to power almost 2.3 million homes, equivalent to all of the households in Yorkshire and the Humber.

HVO is marketed as one of the world’s purest and greenest fuels. 

It is synthetically made through the hydrotreatment process from vegetable oils or animal fats, which significantly reduces harmful carbon-dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen-oxide (NOx) emissions when used in diesel vehicles and machinery.

The renewable diesel being used by DB Cargo UK for Drax is derived from 100 percent waste products—no virgin products are used in its manufacturing, according to Drax.

Roger Neary, DB Cargo UK’s chief sales officer, said the decision by Drax to adopt the use of HVO in its trains was a win-win for both companies.

“The government had set the rail industry a stretching target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and remove all diesel-only traction by 2040, so the use of HVO in our trains will go a long way to helping us meet that challenge,” Neary said. “At the same time, it will help Drax meet its own sustainability targets and minimize its impact on the environment.”

Neary said until a firm commitment is made to electrification of the U.K. network, HVO is the only credible solution to rail-freight decarbonization.

“More services could be operated with HVO if the right policies and incentives were in place to enable more customers to make the switch,” Neary said.

Rail freight is critical to the power station’s supply chain, transporting large volumes of biomass pellets to the plant, which produces around 8 percent of the U.K.’s renewable power.

Bruce Heppenstall, plant director at Drax Power Station, said rail freight was already a more sustainable method of transporting the pellets than road, taking some 192,000 heavy-duty vehicles off the U.K.’s network each year.

“We are proud that DB Cargo’s HVO-powered trains service Drax Power Station,” Heppenstall said. “We are committed to decarbonizing our supply chains and, through deploying the carbon-removals technology, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, we aim to become a carbon-negative business. Drax Power Station uses high volumes of biomass to keep the lights on for millions of homes across the U.K. Rail freight is a cleaner and greener option for transporting this material and our partnership with DB Cargo prevents thousands of additional journeys by heavy-goods vehicles across the U.K.’s road network.”