UK
to provide more than £11M to £23M alternative & dual-fuel heavy-duty
vehicle demonstration program; more than 300 vehicles
23 August 2012
The
UK government will provide more than £11 million (US$17.5
million) in support to a £23 million (US$36.6 million) demonstration program to
encourage road haulage operators in the UK to buy and use lower carbon
commercial vehicles.
The
Government funding will help operators establish and run fleets of alternative
& dual-fuel heavy-goods vehicles by meeting part of the difference in
capital cost between traditional vehicles and their lower carbon equivalents.
More than 300 low-carbon commercial vehicles will be involved in the
demonstration program. The funding will also help meet the cost of the refuelling
points for use by the trial fleets, including the provision of 11 new public
access refuelling stations around the country, which will be available for use
by other operators.
The
demonstration trial fleets will be run for two years, during which time usage
data will be gathered and analysed by the Department for Transport.
The
thirteen demonstrator trials will be led by: Ascott Transport Ltd (Derbyshire),
Brit European Transport Ltd (Crewe), CNG Services Ltd (Solihull; 2 trials),
G-Volution Ltd (Newport, Gwent), Howard Tenens Associates Ltd (Gloucestershire
& Wiltshire), J.B. Wheaton and Sons Ltd (Somerset), John Lewis Partnership
plc (London), T Baden Hardstaff Ltd (Nottingham), Robert Wiseman Dairies
(Glasgow), Tesco plc (Northants), The BOC Group (Guildford) and United Biscuits
UK Ltd (Leicestershire).
The
demonstrator trials include:
· The John Lewis Partnership working
with partners to demonstrate a 70% reduction in carbon emissions in a wide
range of articulated vehicles. This will be achieved by combining recent
research into truck aerodynamics with technology that substitutes the majority
of the diesel used with bio-methane, and many other interventions.
· A project led by G-Volution that will
trial ten 44 tonne dual-fuel commercial HGVs using their patented dual fuel
technology ‘Optimiser’ and biomethane. The articulated trucks, converted to
dual-fuel, will be trialled alongside diesel equivalents, providing direct
comparison data for different operating environments.
· United Biscuits collaborative
project, which proposes to exploit the value in used cooking oil by creating a
renewable fuel solution for use in 44 tonne articulated vehicles in a way that
is innovative and provides greater greenhouse gas savings than other liquid
fuel.
· J.B. Wheaton and Sons Ltd will trial,
with other fleet operators, the use of 28 vehicles that will be fuelled from
compressed natural gas or liquid natural gas blended with renewable biomethane
to run dual fuel gas converted trucks. The project will also provide seven
fixed refuelling stations & five mobile stations, which can be shared with
other fleet operators.
· Robert Wiseman Diaries, collaborating
with Chive Fuels, Cenex and MIRA, will trial the use of 40 new warranted dual
fuel 40 tonne articulated trucks substituting diesel with natural gas from two
upgraded public access liquefied natural gas stations, one in the West Midlands
and one in Scotland.
The program will be managed by Technology
Strategy Board in partnership with the Department for
Transport and the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV). OLEV is a
cross-Whitehall team that has been established to manage a program of measures
designed to promote uptake of the next-generation of ultra-low emission vehicle
technologies. Comprising people and funding from the Departments for Transport;
Business, Innovation and Skills; and Energy and Climate Change, OLEV is
responsible for taking forward a national policy on this shared agenda.
