Category Archives: Alternative Fuels

Hydrogen Transit To Demo New Hydrogen Filling Stations

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Back in April, I wrote about a new partnership that was promising to deliver workable, cost-effective hydrogen filling stations in the not-too-distant future. ITM Power‘s goal is to develop a commercially-viable hydrogen filling station that actually generates its own hydrogen from water and electricity – not relying on deliveries by tanker lorries.

It seems that progress has already been made towards that goal. ITM Power are currently running a Ford Focus as a hydrogen demonstration vehicle for their filling station design. At present it only has a range (using one charge of hydrogen fuel) of 25 miles, but this can be increased to 100 miles by storing the hydrogen under greater pressure. The vehicle is bi-fuel and can be switched back to petrol whenever necessary.

Next month will see Roush Technologies, the company handling the vehicle engineering side of this project, start using a hydrogen-fuelled Ford Transit to demonstrate the capabilities of the system. The Transit, which features a supercharged 2.3 litre [petrol] engine, will be used to promote the benefits of hydrogen fuel to businesses and other van operators.

The system will be targeted at vans on short delivery runs in urban areas where returning to base to refuel is not an issue and where reduced emissions could well result in tax and operating cost reductions for the van operators.

ITM Power have managed to reduce the cost of the hydrogen fuelling stations by replacing the platinum membrane normally required with a specially-developed polymer. This has a cost of just 1% of the traditional design and is helping bring commercially-viable hydrogen fuel stations closer to reality.

ITM expect to go into volume production of hydrogen filling stations in the next couple of years and expect production units to cost a few thousand pounds. That seems cheap to me – although they will use a sizable amount of electricity, it is easy to imagine attractive cost savings in comparison to diesel.

For more details, see these stories in Logistics Manager and Fleet News.

Biofuels Responsible for 75% of Food Price Increases

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The rush to use food crops to make biofuels has caused 75% of the rise in food prices seen between 2002 and Febuary 2008, according to a new, unpublished World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

In comparison, the report found that increased energy and fertiliser costs have only been responsible for 15% of food price increases across the same period.

This is a subject I have been concerned about for some time – it’s good to see authoritative, objective support for this coming from such a respected source.

Hopefully both EU and US politicians might start to think a little more carefully about their biofuel policies now – with about half of EU-produced vegetable oil and a third of US corn being used to make biofuels, their incentives have unwittingly distorted global food markets.

An untangling of this mess is urgently needed.

You can read the full report on the Guardian’s website.

Charities Weigh In To Biofuels Debate

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A leading charity has joined the calls by top scientists for compulsory EU biofuel targets to be reconsidered.

Barbara Stocking, CEO of Oxfam GB said that “Recent estimates suggest that increased demand for biofuels accounts for 30% of recent food price rises, while mounting scientific evidence shows biofuels are having an overall negative impact on climate change.”

The UK government has already promised to review their target of making 5% of transport fuels biofuel within two years. However, the EU has continued discussing even more ambitious targets – despite the widespread evidence that the carbon footprint of biofuels can be larger than that of fossil fuels.

Stocking said that “the urgent review of compulsory biofuels targets in rich countries to stop their inflationary impact” was “a priority”.

I’ve been writing articles on the unwanted side effects of increased biofuel use for some months now and over that time the case has only got stronger. Environmentalists, poverty campaigners and scientists all agree that we need to take a step back and look at the bigger impact of biofuels.

So what does the EU do? Plough onwards with plans to make increased use of biofuels compulsory…

TNT Goes Electric With New Urban Fleet

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This week saw TNT announce an order for 100 Smith Electric Vehicles Newton delivery trucks. The vehicles will be put TNT Smith Electric Vehicle - Newton into use on urban routes and the vehicles will have a gross weight of 7.5 tonnes – territory currently occupied by diesel-powered vehicles.

The electric vehicles are part of TNT’s ‘Planet Me’ green initiative and offer a number of environmental and economic benefits – including zero road tax and  London Congestion Charge exemption. TNT believes that when all 100 are in operation, they will reduce the company’s CO2 emissions by 1,300 tonnes annually.

The Newtons should also prove cheaper to fuel than their diesel equivalents – and given that TNT’s fleet of 1,950 commercial vehicles and 930 cars slurped a massive £24.83m worth of diesel last year, I guess every little helps!

The vehicles are the first ever 7.5t class lorries that can offer comparable performance to diesel equivalents an maintain zero emissions. The trucks cost just 7p/mile in electricity costs and have a range of 70 miles and a maximum speed of 50mph – ideal for urban delivery work.

According to Tom Bell, Managing Director of TNT Express Services UK & Ireland, the economic argument is as compelling as the environmental case: “On average it costs just £40-a-week to power a zero emission vehicle as opposed to around £200 spent on diesel fuel. The electric vehicles are also exempt from the London congestion charge – approximately £1,750 a year – and do not incur road tax in the UK.”

TNT’s Smith Electric Vehicles will be going into service in locations around the UK – including London, Basildon, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Durham, Edinburgh, Enfield, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Luton, Northampton, Oxford, Paisley, Preston and Wolverhampton.

Alternative Fuel Briefs – Compulsory EU Biodiesel Staying & Hydrogen Too Late?

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I thought I’d share a couple of altnerative fuel stories with you that caught my eye today.

Biofuels Here To Stay – EU

It looks like the EU may not be going to back down on the planned 20% biofuel target as readily as has recently been suggested, according to a new story in the news this week.

In a recent speech, EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel provided staunch support for the biofuel movement, saying that just 15% of the EU’s agricultural land would provide enough rapeseed to meet the biofuel target. Boel also noted that 58% of this rapeseed would be converted into animal feed – presumably after the oil had been extracted.

I don’t know about you, but 15% of EU agricultural land actually seems rather a lot to me – especially with staple food prices going up and no notable expansion in farming levels.

How many farmers would have to stop growing wheat and other food crops to produce this much rapeseed?

(via Fleet News)

Hydrogen Fuel – To Long In The Pipeline?

A new report called published in the USA suggests that while hydrogen’s low emission credentials may be sound, it will take far too long for the technology to mature and enter volume usage.

“The Hype About Hydrogen: Fact and Fiction in the Race To Save the Climate” suggests that mainstream hydrogen fuelled vehicles are simply too far in the future to provide the urgently-needed reduction in carbon emissions.

The report, by Joseph Romm of the Centre for Energy and Climate Solutions, suggests that lower-emission petrol engines and hybrid/electric solutions provide more realistic emission-reducing prospects in the near future.

This article in Wired highlights how the current heavy investment in hydrogen needs to be mirrored by investment in electric and hybrid-based solutions if the necessary cuts in emissions – put at an 80% reduction by 2050 – are to be met.

My personal view, echoed by many of the commenters on the Wired article, is that any such change always takes longer than expected to become mainstream. The Earth will survive in the meantime, but the critical short-term issue is to find ways of reducing consumption and emissions using existing internal combustion technology. Hybrids do seem to offer one potential solution – but they are still relatively immature and quite expensive.

(via Wired)

More Electric Van News & New Models

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As I blogged in April, this year’s Commercial Vehicle Show at the Birmingham NEC saw several manufacturers unveiling or promoting their electric van models.

It’s undoubtedly a fast growing sector of the market and I’ve since found that there were even more electric vans and trucks on display than I realised!

There’s a great write-up on What Van’s website that covers most of the interesting new van models that were at the NEC – plus a link to an excellent slideshow with high resolution pictures of all the new models…

Mercedes Launch LNG Sprinter With 1200km Range

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Mercedes-Benz have launched a natural gas-powered version of its popular Sprinter van. The van, which Mercedes Sprinter XLWBhas a supercharged 1.8 litre petrol engine, generates 156hp and can run on petrol, LNG or CNG. Drivers can switch between natural gas and petrol power and the combination of a full petrol tank and a full gas tank will give the van an impressive 1200km range, according to Mercedes.

Mercedes claim that the Euro 4-compliant, gas-powered Sprinter will have operating costs up to 30% below those of diesel-powered Sprinters and the vehicle has been successfully trialled by Deutsche Post, DHL and UPS in Germany. Compressed natural gas is especially popular in Germany, as the fuel benefits from a reduced tax rate that will last until at least 2018, offering van operators guaranted savings over diesel during that period.

Although Mercedes have offered natural gas conversions of Sprinters before, this is the first purpose built gas/petrol Sprinter van. The van should be available for sale anytime now, although I’m not sure how the price will compare to diesel models.

More Hydrogen Fuelled News

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Following my recent post about the UK’s first hydrogen fuel station, news comes that a much larger station is planned for London by 2010 to power a fleet of ten hydrogen buses.

Interestingly, five of the buses will be powered by internal combustion engines burning hydrogen while the other five will use a fuel cell/electric motor system.

The fuel station will be provided by Air Products – the same company that is providing the University of Birmingham’s hydrogen fuel station.

At the other end of the market (size-wise), PSA (makers of Peugeot, Citroen and Fiat vans) have unveiled an experimental hydrogen fuel cell-powered electric version of the ever-popular Peugeot Partner small van. The electric motor is powered by a 10kW fuel cell that’s been specifically designed for small van use and fits under the bonnet, giving the van a 300km range.

The hydrogen itself is stored in an ‘exchangeable rack’ – meaning that it can be swapped for a new, pre-filled rack if a refuelling facility isn’t available. This could be a useful feature given how few hydrogen fuel stations are likely to be available for the next few years.

Impressively, the vehicle can also be started at temperatures down to -20C – so cold starts should never be a problem in the UK or most of Europe.

(Thanks to Just-Autos.com for this story.)

A Gaggle Of Green Vans + UK’s First Hydrogen Fuel Station

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Here’s a quick round up of alternative fuel news from this week.

Electric Dream?

This week’s Commercial Vehicle Show at the Birmingham NEC has seen a host of new vehicle announcements – not least from electric vehicle manufacturers and converters.

Commercial Motor Editor Brian Wetherley has posted a review of some of the most interesting electric contenders on his Big Lorry Blog and it is encouraging to see some of the electric vehicle companies I have previously written about making a high profile appearance at this major trade show and getting interest from major fleet operators.

It’s not hard to imagine that electric vans and light trucks could become popular with van hire companies in urban areas, too. In London especially, the tightening rules in place in the LEZ (Low Emissions Zone) mean that operating zero emission electric vehicles might be of financial benefit for both the hirer and the hire company.

UK’s First Hydrogen Fuel Station

This week also saw the opening of the UK’s first hydrogen fuel station at the University of Birmingham. The university – which is home to a number of research initiatives into fuel cells and alternative fuels – will run five hydrogen vehicles alongside its existing fleet of electric, petrol and diesel vehicles in order to learn more about the performance and efficiency of such vehicles.

The hydrogen fuel station has been installed by leading hydrogen supplier Air Products and is able to fuel around six hydrogen vehicles each day – but the hydrogen fuelling plant has been specifically designed for compact, easy installation and is only intended for limited scale usage at present. As I wrote about recently, such hydrogen fuel stations generally only require mains electricity and water, making them easy to install and adapt for mobile use.

Mainstream car makers experimenting with hydrogen vehicles are keen to encourage hydrogen fuel stations, due to the ‘chicken and egg’ scenario currently faced. Even when efficient, affordable hydrogen-powered vehicles are available, there is no fuelling infrastructure in the UK or Europe to make their use possible.

Although hydrogen fuel is zero emission when in use, producing hydrogen remains quite costly in energy terms. I think it’s still an open question as to whether electricity or hydrogen will win the race to become the next mainstream fuel – my gut tells me it might be electricity, but what do I know?

EU U-Turn: Scrap Biofuels & Start Using Coal!

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Well, perhaps I exaggerate a little.

All the same, the EU have come out with a remarkably fast u-turn on the issue of compulsory use of biofuels in all forecourt fuels, following widespread criticism of this issue. The EU’s target of 10% biofuels in all vehicle fuel by 2020 now looks likely to be changed, or at least have significant conditions attached to it.

The argument is that while biofuels themselves may have low emissions, the growth of the crops they are made from can often result in biofuels having a higher carbon footprint than the mineral oil-based fuels they are supposed to replace. Biofuels have also been widely criticised for causing food production to be sacrificed for biofuel crops, contributing to rising food prices globally.

The European Environment Agency has now ordered a “new, comprehensive scientific study on the environmental risks and benefits of biofuels” following the publication of a report by leading climate scientists which calls for the suspension of the 10% biofuels policy.

The report states that “the over-ambitious 10% biofuels target is an experiment whose unintended effects are difficult to predict and difficult to control.” Germany has already announced that it will be toning down its biofuel policies but it is the only EU state to have done so to date.

What’s This About Coal?

In the same week that the EU’s biofuel targets started to look in doubt, the European Parliament has requested a €60m annual research fund to investigate ways of producing low-emission motor fuels, such as hydrogen, from coal.

The project is part of a wider initiative to develop ‘greener’ uses for coal.