ULEMCo, the hydrogen fuel pioneer, has completed its first hydrogen dual-fuel conversion in which HVO is used on the vehicle rather than diesel. The waste collection truck for Keenan Recycling gives the opportunity to show best in class “environmental sustainability” by combining the use of hydrogen to reduce tailpipe emissions with the “drop in” renewable fuel.
The conversion shows that hydrogen dual-fuel can work equally well with diesel or the non-fossil fuel HVO, giving the opportunity to address both direct tailpipe CO2 emission reduction from the hydrogen (typically 30%), along with the use of a sustainable fuel that can avoid up to 90% of net CO2 emissions.
HVO – for hydrotreated vegetable oil – is an alternative to regular diesel, and is produced from waste material such as recycled vegetable oil. It can be sustainable if it is produced from a waste-derived feedstock that does not contribute to deforestation. Combining this with the zero carbon fuel hydrogen opens up the exciting opportunity for negative carbon solutions.
The waste truck will go into operation at the end of this month in Aberdeen where there is an existing hydrogen refuelling infrastructure supplied by electrolytic production. This provides a great location for operators like Keenan to access a reliable source of green hydrogen, and roll out scaled fleet-wide conversions.
“Hydrogen is recognised as an important part of the solution to decarbonise the UK economy in the transport and construction sectors where electrification is difficult to achieve”, says Amanda Lyne, Managing Director of ULEMCo. “We are looking forward to seeing yet another customer make use of hydrogen in a real-world application, and actually save significant carbon emissions now”.
“We believe this is the first HVO / hydrogen dual-fuel truck operating in the UK”, says Grant Keenan, Managing Director at Keenan Recycling. “Following the Aberdeen trial, we plan to include hydrogen increasingly in our transport road map.”
Applying a drop-in alternative fuel with the ease of conversion to hydrogen on existing vehicle platforms and assets is an attractive and immediate route for heavy duty applications such as utility vehicles and the construction industry to start delivering on their sustainability and net zero targets.
Achieving net zero will require a combination of technologies according to ULEMCo, and this latest development opens up another valuable avenue for heavy duty applications.