Renewable Fuel Demonstration Project - UK
Why?
The UK government’s 2017 Clean Growth Strategy aimed to reduce heating emissions, focusing first on homes off the mains gas grid that relied on oil, coal, or LPG. Although a planned ban on new oil boilers was later withdrawn, the industry wanted to demonstrate that renewable liquid fuels could offer an immediate, practical route to decarbonisation.
The goal was to show that consumers could significantly reduce emissions without replacing their existing heating systems.
What?
The project was led and funded by OFTEC and UKIFDA, with strong support from fuel distributors, appliance manufacturers, heating technicians, and independent consultants. A total of 135 homes across the UK, from Scotland to southern England and Wales, participated.
The homes represented a range of building types and heating systems, including small residential boilers, large non-residential units, vaporising cookers, pressure-jet cookers, combined cooker-boilers, and modern pressure-jet boilers.
Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) was selected as a 100% renewable drop-in replacement for kerosene, offering an 88% reduction in lifecycle CO₂ emissions.
United Kingdom & Ireland
Outcome
- Over three heating seasons, all appliances operated reliably on HVO with no loss of performance. Minor combustion deposits observed on some early installations were eliminated after fitting HVO-specific nozzles, and occasional “wetting” at nozzle tips was confirmed to be normal and harmless.
- Efficiency measurements showed an average improvement of 0.97% compared with kerosene, consistent with laboratory results. Consumers responded positively, and distributors demonstrated that HVO could be delivered reliably to homes.
- The project confirmed that renewable liquid fuels like HVO provide a practical, drop-in solution for decarbonising off-grid heating. It offers immediate climate benefits, maintains comfort and reliability, and provides strong, real-world evidence for policymakers that existing heating systems can be used effectively with sustainable fuels.
“It has been shown that the full load efficiencies were unchanged, and the part load efficiencies were marginally higher for the HVO, but within the uncertainty of the test regime and apparatus.”