Liebherr pursues an approach that is open to a variety of different new technologies when working on drive concepts. The company focuses on the energy conversion technologies available now and in the foreseeable future (engines) and suitable energy carriers (fuels). Some of the energy conversion technologies currently include electric motors, fuel cells, batteries, combustion engines or a combination in the form of a hybrid drive. The energy carriers include electrical energy, hydrogen, ammonia, e-fuels, methanol, biodiesel, fossil diesel, and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO).
HVO can now be used in the majority of the Liebherr construction machines, cranes and mining equipment in pure form or in addition to diesel. When working on new drive concepts Liebherr relies on HVO, among others, as an alternative fuel. Its manufacture is climate-neutral if electricity is solely generated from renewable energy sources. In addition, it generates fewer emissions during its use than a machine operated with diesel fuel. This becomes clear in a comparison: during the life cycle of a product, the greenhouse gas emissions can be lowered by up to 90% if the machine is fuelled with Neste MY Renewable Diesel (= HVO 100), from one of the key HVO suppliers of the Liebherr Group, instead of fossil diesel. This calculation for Neste MY Renewable Diesel is in accordance with the requirements of the EU Renewable Energy Directive II (2018/2001/EU). Durable Liebherr machines which are often used by customers for many years do not have to be replaced or retrofitted. Instead, they can continue to work with HVO fuel immediately.
The Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH factory has been fuelling its mobile and crawler cranes solely with pure HVO fuel since the start of September 2021. The changeover from fossil diesel to HVO applies to the crane acceptance and test drives as well as to the first fuelling before delivery. Furthermore, almost the entire factory transport in Ehingen has also been changed over to HVO.
The Liebherr-Hydraulikbagger factory for earthmoving and material handling equipment replaced fossil fuel with HVO fuel in January 2022. In addition to the first fuelling of all new machines before delivery, in future this changeover will also apply to machine demonstrations and validation applications in the factory. The factory transport will be gradually converted to HVO fuel, and all machines used in production such as forklift trucks will be gradually fuelled with HVO fuel in the future.
The manufacture and use of HVO is largely climate-neutral if only renewable energy sources are used. HVO is obtained from cooking oil waste, grease and fat residues, waste fats and vegetable oil. Then it is converted into hydrocarbons by the process of catalytic hydrogenation, i.e. the addition of hydrogen on intense heating. This in turn is an energy carrier and thus a potential fuel. To what extent HVO will also establish itself on the market in the long term depends primarily on how the global production volume of the fuel and the associated availability develop. Despite the significantly increasing production, HVO is only available extensively in a few countries in Europe. HVO is only an environmentally compatible and socially acceptable solution if palm oils are not used in production and no rainforests are felled for acquiring new cultivation areas.