Companies Gasrec, Veolia Environmental Services and Iveco, announced yesterday the start of a commercial trial of liquid gas fuel that could "drastically reduce" reliance on fossil fuels.
Compressed Biomethane (CBM) produced from landfill gas is to be trialled by Veolia in one of the Cage street cleansing vehicles used in fulfilling its refuse collection, recycling and street cleansing contract with Camden Council. The natural gas-powered Daily light commercial vehicle in use for the trial, is one of the latest generation of natural gas powered vehicle manufactured by Iveco.
Six month trial
The vehicle has been provided to Veolia Environmental Services by Gasrec who will also supply the CBM for a six months trial.
From left to right, Doug Leaf, Development Manager, Gasrec Ltd, Cllr Keith Moffitt, Leader of Camden Council, Keith Riley, Managing Director, Technical Services, Veolia Environmental Services, in front of the truck Camden and Veolia are trialing to run on waste-derived fuel provided by Gasrec.
Keith Riley, Managing Director for Technical Services at Veolia, said:
“CBM has excellent potential to provide at least some of our vehicles with a fuel that reduces climate change impacts and contributes to reducing our dependence on mineral fuels. We have to look at environmentally friendly alternatives for our operations and gas-powered vehicles are one of those developing technologies we are keen to assess.”
The performance of the fuel will be measured against existing vehicles running on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). The vehicle will be refuelled at a CBM refuelling station installed by Gasrec at Camden Council's York Way depot.
Richard Lilleystone, Chief Executive Officer at Gasrec, said:
“The gas we use to make the CBM for this vehicle comes from a landfill site in Albury, Surrey, which began production in June 2008. In creating and selling this fuel product, we recover the latent energy stored in material discarded by society, providing power particularly suited to vehicles operating in the urban environment.”
The project aims to demonstrate that biomethane is a commercially competitive and environmentally sound fuel that can be directly substituted for natural gas. Government considers biomethane to be the most sustainable biofuel in terms of impact on resource depletion in relation to alternatives such as biodiesel and ethanol.
Biomethane also has the lowest "carbon intensity" of all commercially available biofuels, on a well to wheel basis, and reduces CO2 emissions by up to 70% in comparison to fossil diesel. One tonne of CBM is also equivalent to 1,200 litres of diesel, which is sufficient to fuel a 44 tonne heavy goods vehicle for an entire week.
Sources of CBM
Gasrec is a producer of liquid methane fuel utilising gas generated by the decomposition of biomass. It obtains its gas supply from existing landfill sites or from controlled digestion of the biomass byproducts of food manufacture, retail and other industries. The company recovers the latent energy from biowastes to power vehicles, especially those operating in the urban environment, or to generate electricity or CHP (Combined Heat and Power).
The generation of power from landfill sites in the UK is tried and tested, with over 300 UK landfill sites generating approximately 1,700 MW/h each year. However, a proportion of sites continue to flare unused gas as hitherto their development was not economically viable, thereby wasting the energy potential of the gas.
The company says it has identified a clean, efficient use for this gas in the production of LBM (Liquid Bio Methane), which can be directly substituted for both CNG (compressed natural gas) and LNG (liquefied natural gas) for use in gas-powered or dual-fuel vehicles, or to generate electricity or CHP (Combined Heat and Power).
Camden Council
Camden Council Leader Cllr Keith Moffitt said:
"As part of our share in tackling climate change, Camden Council works with and encourages all our contractors to make sure they are providing services that are as sustainable as possible. This pilot is particularly interesting as biomethane is recognised as one of the most climate friendly fuels. "
Cllr Alexis Rowell, Camden Council's Eco Champion, added:
"The average household bin is one third food waste. Rather than send it to landfill or an incinerator, we can turn it into a gas - called biomethane - and run our municipal vehicle fleet on it. Biomethane means virtually no carbon or noxious emissions so it's good for the environment and for our air quality. This seemed like a dream 18 months ago when Camden's Sustainability Taskforce suggested it, but now we're trialling both food waste collections and biomethane in our vehicles. It's a sign that the Council is serious about cutting the carbon out of Camden."
Vehicle technical information
The Daily 65C14G is built on a 3,750 mm wheelbase and has been supplied by Iveco dealer Stormont Truck & Van, mounted with a lightweight caged tipper body. It will be used by Veolia on waste and recycling collection rounds as part of a fleet of more than 40 vehicles which support the 200,000+ local residents.
The vehicle has a 3 litre engine which is capable of producing up to 136 hp between 2,730 and 3,500 rev/min, and up to 350 Nm of torque between 1,500 and 2,730 rev/min. It is built on Iveco’s Daily production line in Suzzara, Italy.