In recent days the term CARE Diesel has appeared more and more frequently. This fuel is said to be environmentally friendly, but not approved in Germany.
CARE Diesel made famous on social media with a sharepic. This sharepic speaks of German innovation, a negative federal government and alludes to a lack of protest from the Greens. You read on it:
65% less CO2 through CARE Diesel
German innovation!No approval for Germany granted
The federal government rejects the introduction of this environmentally friendly fuel.
It's not about CO2.
It's not about the environment.
It's not about the climate.It's about rip-off.
Less CO2 = less CO2 tax
And no Greens are protesting!
[mk_ad]
Since Sharepics (or the term “tile” has recently been used more frequently) is always quite short in its explanations and sources, we will carry out a fact check here.

What is the CARE Diesel?
This fuel is not an invention of the Internet, but really exists. The term CARE is an acronym consisting of the terms CO2 reduction, Arctic Grade (cold resistance), Renewable and Emission Reduction.
It is a fuel that is not synthesized from crude oil. Instead, old frying fats or similar fat residues or waste are mainly used. In this respect, CARE is 100% regenerative.
How does the number 65% come about?
The point here is simply that CARE consists of waste materials that are generally viewed as CO2 neutral because they have already been used. What is charged, however, is the processing of the waste materials into the fuel.
This value was determined by the Finnish emissions laboratory VTT and can be found in the publication “Optimized usage of NExBTL renewable diesel fuel” from 2011 ( here ).
[mk_ad]
What does Bosch have to do with it?
Bosch is often mentioned on the sharepic. Bosch itself does not produce the fuel (as is often mistakenly assumed), but Bosch, or Bosch boss Volkmar Denner, is a supporter of the fuel.
Bosch therefore announced in a press release in November 2018 that the fuel in its own vehicle fleet would be used via company-internal filling stations ( compare ):
Robert Bosch GmbH has been using 100 percent renewable diesel in its management vehicles since the beginning of November. The fuel is so-called CARE diesel, sold by the trading company Toolfuel.
Is CARE a “German innovation?”
At this point the Sharepic is talking nonsense. The fuel is not a German innovation. CARE is an HVO fuel according to EN 15940 from the Finnish company Neste ( see here ). HVO means “Hydrogenated/Hydrotreated Vegetable Oils”.
The product is sold by the German company Tool-Fuel from Hamburg. On the Tuel-Fuel website you can read about CARE:
CARE Diesel®, sold by the TOOL-FUEL group of companies, is a high-performance fuel that is produced primarily from residual and waste materials using a special process. CARE Diesel® is one of the paraffinic fuels according to EN 15940 and essentially has a material structure similar to fossil diesel. However, because there are no harmful components at all, it more than significantly exceeds the specifications of all diesel fuels currently available at gas stations.
The basic substance of CARE Diesel®, HVO, is added to their premium diesel by leading mineral oil producers in quantities of up to 20%. TOOL-FUEL Services GmbH sells the product, which was previously only used for refinement, in 100% pure form.
Has the federal government rejected CARE?
In fact, there were various testing phases for the fuel. The city of Öhringen, among others, used CARE and used it to refuel its fire engines from 2016 ( see here ).
On November 7, 2019, Focus published a corresponding article about this, citing the Stuttgarter Zeitung. It states that approval of the biofuel is refused in Germany ( here ).
There are various reasons given for this. The Focus concludes that there should be no alternative to electromobility. This is where a request to the Federal Environment Agency comes in, which was initiated Fragdenstaat.de The inquiry as to why the fuel is not approved in Germany was also sent in November 2019. Fragdenstaat.de quotes the Federal Environment Ministry here with a reason for non-approval:
XTL as a pure, standardized fuel in the 10th BImSchV would include PtL, BtL, GtL, etc. and also HVO from palm oil; a differentiation is not technically planned and is not necessary from the user side. Currently only paraffinic fuel made from GtL and HVO is available on the market. Approval of XTL could lead to a higher proportion of palm oil-based biofuels in Germany and have overall negative effects on the environment.
Germany's special route leads via EN 15940, which also poses a problem for approval. CARE can certainly be mixed with normal diesel in the form of biofuel at 6 - 10%. But on November 29, 2019, the Federal Council rejected DIN EN 15940 being included as a diesel fuel in the 10th Federal Emissions Control Ordinance (BImSchV), and this was also the end of CARE as a pure fuel.
Germany is therefore taking a special approach here, because countries such as Austria, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Spain have approved alternative fuels in accordance with EN 15940. The Tagesspiegel dedicated a longer article to this topic on November 27, 2019 ( see here ). Basically, this topic is not just about CARE, but generally about all so-called e-fuels that are subject to EN 15940. These may not be offered in their pure form, but only as an admixture.
Fuel problems
Already from this request, but also from the article “Questions and answers about biodiesel fuel Care” on the Springerprofessional.de , problems that CARE brings with it are apparent.
One of these problems is the palm oil mentioned above, which was initially added to the alternative fuel. come under heavy criticism in recent years . According to its own statement, up to 20% palm oil was added to the NExBTL from the Finnish company Neste in 2018 ( compare ). However, Tool-Fuel published in a press release from October 2019 that the CARE Diesel has been free of palm oil since January 1, 2019 ( see here ).
In principle, alternative fuels also have a higher price, currently up to €4.50 per liter (according to Tagesspiegel ). The question arises as to whether people will ultimately voluntarily choose the more expensive fuel.
There is also the manufacturer's guarantee/guarantee: vehicles that use e-fuels in accordance with EN 15940 require the manufacturer's approval. The website Springerprofessional.de, which has already been cited as a source, writes here that the “paraffinic fuel Care has a slightly lower density and higher ignitability compared to conventional diesel fuel” and must be approved for the vehicle by the vehicle manufacturer.
The whole game should be well known and was already a topic not quite 10 years ago when the E10 was introduced in Germany. At that time there were also corresponding approvals from the manufacturers that should be observed ( compare ).
Finally
The fact check contains the essential aspects of CARE and the refused approval for Germany. However, the political situation is much more complicated than the simple representation of the picture allows.
The Association of the German Biofuel Industry e. V. also sent us a more in-depth classification, which we would like to publish HERE .
Whether Germany will ultimately get through with this decision is also partly open to question. Here, Germany is ignoring the EU Directive 2014/94/EU, which deals with the development of the infrastructure for alternative fuels ( see here ). The Tagesspiegel also let Alexander Stöhr, the managing director of Tool-Fuel (Sales CARE), speak on this topic. This warns of infringement proceedings if paraffinic diesel is not included in the BImSch regulation.
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

