Hong Kong-headed EcoCeres Inc., a leading pure-play renewable fuel producer, has launched a pilot with GDS Holdings Ltd (GDS), a leading developer and operator of high‑performance data centers in China, to use hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) – aka renewable diesel – as a low‑carbon replacement for conventional diesel in data center backup power.
The partnership marks one of the first applications of HVO in China’s internet data center (IDC) sector, and it showcases a full circular‑economy model from waste collection to low‑carbon power.
As part of the pilot, EcoCeres has supplied HVO to a GDS data center in North China, where it is used as a direct, drop-in replacement for fossil-derived diesel in the site’s backup generators.
According to EcoCeres, its waste-based HVO has a lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions footprint that can be up to 90 percent lower than traditional fossil diesel.
By using this low-carbon fuel in place of conventional diesel in backup generators, the collaboration illustrates how circular‑economy thinking can be applied to the fast‑growing data center sector: used cooking oil (UCO) that would otherwise be treated as waste is upgraded into low‑carbon fuel to power digital infrastructure.
Partnering with GDS shows how HVO can help decarbonise mission‑critical infrastructure without compromising reliability. By turning used cooking oil into renewable backup power for GDS, we are putting the circular‑economy concept into practice and proving how HVO can empower low‑carbon computing power and enable a greener future. This pilot is an important first step towards large‑scale adoption of waste‑based HVO in China’s rapidly growing IDC sector, said Matti Lievonen, CEO of EcoCeres.
Address hard-to-abate, high-reliability sectors
The cooperation with GDS aligns with EcoCeres’ strategy to cut emissions in hard‑to‑abate, high-reliability sectors such as data centers, aviation, logistics, and heavy transport, using waste‑based renewable fuels, including HVO and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
The project validates the feasibility of using waste-derived, drop-in HVO to reduce Scope 1 emissions amid rapid data center expansion effectively.
Looking ahead, EcoCeres sees strong potential to extend this model to other leading IDC operators in China and across the region, creating opportunities for longer‑term offtake, broader site coverage, and deeper Scope 1 and Scope 3 emissions partnerships with end‑customers.
