Q&A

Commercial vehicles run under a wide range of operating conditions and duty cycles - not all are well-suited for battery-electric propulsion, particularly in the near term. For those hard-to-electrify vehicles, renewable diesel is a viable option to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions “practically overnight,” according to Matt Leuck, technical manager for Renewable Road Transportation in North America for Neste, which claims to be the world's largest producer of renewable diesel and jet fuel.

Preparing to participate in the “Low/Zero Carbon Fuels” technical session during the SAE Government/Industry Digital Summit on February 2-3, Leuck said that Neste sees strong, sustained growth for renewable diesel in medium- and heavy-duty road vehicles, as well as in other segments such as mobile machines used at mines and construction sites. “In fact, demand growth has the potential to increase fivefold in the decades ahead,” he shared. “This growth is driven by two key things: end-users are setting ambitious climate goals, and governments are adopting policies that incentivize the use of low-emission renewable fuels.”