A dollop of biofuel in the heating oil

Next year households who heat their homes with oil furnaces will be burning biological fuel mixed in with their regular fuel oil. As of the beginning of the year, oil companies in Finland have agreed that biofuel will account for two per cent of the volume of heating oil.
      Included are all of Finland’s key providers of heating oil, such as Shell, Neste oil, Teboil, and ST1.
      The aim is to gradually increase the proportion of biological fuel to ten per cent by 2016.
     
The biofuel initiative is part of the Höylä III project of the Finnish Oil and Gas Federation, aimed at improving the energy efficiency of oil heating.
      Currently, the 240,000 detached houses using oil for heating account for about two per cent of Finland’s primary energy consumption, while producing 2.5 per cent of Finland’s carbon dioxide emissions.
     The composition of biological fuel varies. For instance, Teboil, Shell, and ST1 are still negotiating what raw material they should use.
     “We are considering palm oil and rapeseed, among others”, says Martti Suikkanen, director of direct sales for Teboil.
     ST1 director Matti Pentti says that his company plans to take the most appropriate fuel from a domestic manufacturer.
     Neste Oil will use its own biological fuel in its heating fuel, which it manufactures mainly from palm oil. Olli Vesamo, director of retail sales at Neste Oil, calculates that the inclusion of biofuel will add about two cents to the price of a litre of heating oil.
     Currently a litre of heating oil costs an average 67 cents.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Vapo to manufacture bio diesel raw material from peat (12.12.2008)
  Greenpeace: Neste palm oil-based biodiesel not so green (31.10.2007)
  Biofuel buses introduced in Helsinki public transport (28.9.2007)
  Finnish oil company Neste to invest billions in biodiesel production (28.9.2006)