11,000 Ton of CO2 Emissions Avoided since April 2021 through the Use of B100 Biofuel on the Paris-Granville Train Line

(Avril) Tuesday, January 17, at the SNCF Technicentre of Granville, Jean-Baptiste Gastinne, Vice President of Transport for the Normandy Region, Grégoire Forgeot d'Arc, Regional Director of SNCF Passengers Lines in Normandy, Claire Duhamel, General Manager of Oleo100 at Saipol (an Avril Business Unit) in the presence of Mrs Françoise Plouviez-Diaz, Deputy Prefect of Coutances, and Mr. Gilles Ménard, Mayor of Granville, provided an assessment of the 18 month-experience of using B100 biofuel in the Régiolis trains running on the Paris-Granville line. Over this time period, the emission of 11,000 tons of CO2 emissions were thus avoided. Fully aware of current environmental concerns, the partners are committed to a joint initiative to reduce CO2 emissions in the region.

Since April 2021, trains on the Paris-Granville line have been powered exclusively by B100, a 100% rapeseed biofuel, representing a first in France.

This innovative initiative in Normandy, France's first, enables withdrawing the use of fossil fuels in the short term, without modifying the rolling stock, thus cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions for a more sustainable form of mobility.

On July 5, 2022, the Plenary Session of the Normandy Region voted in favor of continuing to use the B100 biofuel.

The objective of the first phase of the commercial service trials, launched in April 2021, was to assess the autonomy of the rolling stock when running on B100 biofuel, as well as to observe the performance of the internal combustion engine. All of the factors analyzed concluded that the rolling stock performed remarkably well.

Over an 18-month period, the trains on the Paris-Granville line traveled 3.5 million kilometers. The switch-over to B100 biofuel enabled avoiding the emission of more than 11,000 tons of greenhouse gases, equivalent to the annual GHG emissions of 1,235 French citizens. Carbon emissions are estimated at 8.9 tons of CO2 equivalent per French citizen/year according to the French Ministry of Ecological Transition. The Quanti GHG study, the methodology adopted by ADEME and applied to the B100 solution on the Paris-Granville line, quantified the impact of this decarbonization initiative. Implementing the B100 solution has enabled a 62% reduction in GHG emissions compared to the previous fossil fuel supply use of these trains.

As of April 2022, SNCF Voyageurs and the Normandy Region, have decided to work with Saipol, which produces B100 under the Oleo100 brand. B100 is a 100% vegetable biofuel derived from the processing of rapeseed oil.

This biofuel offers an autonomous capacity comparable to that of diesel. This energy is conveyed from the Grand-Couronne site in Normandy in vehicles that are themselves powered by Oleo100 and then stored in tanks at the Granville Technicentre. The Oleo100 product meets all sustainability criteria.

biodiesAs a co-product of edible oil and non-GMO oilcakes for livestock, Oleo100 thus contributes to France's food, protein, and energy independence.

According to the European Commission's Renewable Energy Directive RED II, French rapeseed does not involve any form of deforestation or land reallocation.

The B100 approach contributes to the regional ambitions in terms of sustainable development and energy transition. It is fully in line with the perspective of decarbonizing rail transport with the objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. The B100 project is a first step in proposing alternative solutions to diesel powered trains. Another objective of using the B100 is to rapidly decarbonize rail transport without having to significantly modify the existing equipment.

Under the national PLANETER ecological transition program for regional express transport (TER), SNCF Voyageurs aims to reduce the carbon footprint of passengers by a third, thereby reducing CO2 emissions by 100,000 tons per year.

SNCF Voyageurs is working with the French Regions to encourage a number of innovations to provide ever-greener mobility solutions: hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) biofuel, hydrogen, hybrid, and battery-powered trains, and more.

The company is also seeking to decarbonize all of its operations through efficiency projects involving its rolling stock and buildings, as well as implementing energy-saving measures in its operations by introducing new business practices to reduce the energy consumption of its trains, such as eco-driving and eco-parking.