The first fleet tests of UPM’s renewable diesel showed that UPM BioVerno works in cars just as well as any regular diesel. The fleet tests were conducted by the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. They were started in May 2013 and ran until early 2014.

The UPM BioVerno diesel fleet tests focused on investigating UPM’s renewable diesel in terms of fuel functionality in engine and fuel consumption. The tests were conducted with a fuel blend including 20 per cent UPM BioVerno and 80 per cent fossil diesel. With this blend fuel consumption matched the consumption of fossil diesel.

Experienced test drivers from VTT drove new Volkswagen Golf 1.6 TDI cars, provided by the VV-Auto Group, and gathered data for analysis during an altogether 80,000-kilometre test drive with four cars, according to VTT. The study included measurements in the laboratory at the beginning of the test and after 20,000 kilometres’ driving. The approximately 20,000-kilometre test drive length was chosen based on the fact that, in Finland, the average yearly distance driven with cars is 17,000 kilometres. Analysis work at VTT was headed by Principal Scientist Juhani Laurikko.

“We studied UPM BioVerno diesel in various conditions: summer and winter weathers as well as on city roads and longer drives. The length of the drives varied from a few kilometres to several hundreds of kilometres on the road, just like real life situations. The engines of the test cars were working excellently in all conditions during the full length of the fleet testing,” says Laurikko.

Fleet testing of UPM BioVerno diesel will continue, together with VTT, using buses in the Helsinki metropolitan area in late 2014.