ULEMCo completes hydrogen-HVO dual-fuel conversion

According to ULEMCo, Keenan Recycling’s waste collection truck provides an 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 direct tailpipe CO₂ emission reduction from the hydrogen (typically 30 per cent), along with the use of a sustainable fuel that can avoid up to 90 per cent of net CO₂ emissions.

HVO is an alternative to regular diesel and is produced from waste materials including recycled vegetable oil. HVO can prove its sustainability credentials if produced from a waste-derived feedstock that does not contribute to deforestation. 

In a statement, Amanda Lyne, managing director of ULEMCo, said: “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.

“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.”

The waste truck will go into operation at the end of this month in Aberdeen where there is hydrogen refuelling infrastructure supplied by electrolytic production.

“We believe this is the first HVO/hydrogen dual-fuel truck operating in the UK”, said Grant Keenan, managing director at Keenan Recycling. “Following the Aberdeen trial, we plan to include hydrogen increasingly in our transport road map.”

Liverpool-based ULEMCo believes that applying a drop-in alternative fuel with the ease of conversion to hydrogen on existing vehicle platforms and assets provides a route for heavy duty applications, such as utility vehicles, and the construction industry to start delivering on their sustainability and net zero targets.