GERMANY: DB Regio has begun fuelling 57 diesel multiple-units in Baden-Württemberg with biofuel, which it says produces around 90% less CO2 than diesel.
The hydrotreated vegetable oil is made from biological residues and waste. It does not contain palm oil, or compete with food and animal feed production.
The DMU are operating on the Aulendorfer Kreuz and Donau-Ostalb networks. The fleet has not required conversion to use biofuel, while the fuelling point at Aulendorf has been converted from diesel to biofuel and is available to any operator.
A ceremonial first train was refuelled on September 1 by Thorsten Krenz, DB group representative for Baden-Württemberg, and Winfried Hermann, the Land’s Minister of Transport.
’By December 2023, we will have saved around 3 700 tonnes of CO2 on the two networks’, said Evelyn Palla, DB board member for Regional Transport. ‘Before the end of this year, we want to use the biofuel in regional transport at other locations throughout Germany. In this way, we are making the already climate-friendly public transport system even greener and more attractive for our passengers.’
The Land is providing €400 000 in 2022-23 to support the conversion to biofuel.
‘Trains should no longer run on climate-damaging diesel’, said Hermann. ’We are working Land-wide on a strategy to get away from diesel fuel. Where electrification is not yet possible, we rely on alternative fuels.’
