40 GREEN PAGES Naturally speaking
According to a report from Pike Research, which is a part of Navigant’s Energy Practice, sales of natural gas trucks and buses are likely to expand steadily over the remainder of the decade. More than 930,000 of these vehicles will be sold worldwide from 2012 to 2019, the study believes. “Natural gas vehicles emit substantially lower levels of greenhouse gases, particulate matter and nitrogen oxide than either gasoline or diesel- powered trucks and buses,” says Senior Research Analyst, Dave Hurst. “What’s more, compared to diesel engines, natural gas provides a financial benefit. In most cases, the higher incremental cost of a natural gas vehicle is typically recovered, due to lower fuel costs, within two to seven years.” Natural gas trucks typically run on
compressed natural gas (or CNG) because their tanks weigh less and are less costly than those for liquefied natural gas (LNG). LNG trucks, however, are being increasingly used as longer range vehicles (400 miles or more compared to 150-300 miles for CNG vehicles) and are seeing higher growth rates than CNG trucks (17% compared to 14% in heavy duty trucks). The worldwide breakdown of refuelling stations for these two types of natural gas is 117 LNG refuelling stations compared to 20,233 CNG refuelling stations. About 45% of the LNG refuelling stations are located in the US, even though China has the largest annual sales for LNG fuelled trucks, with 3,020 vehicle sales recorded in 2012.
New vinyl covers are eco-friendly
Incheon International Airport Corporation, in Seoul, has underwritten 50% of the purchase price of more than 7,000 biodegradable vinyl pallet covers used by handling companies Korea Airport Service, Swissport and AACT. The project is the fourth in a series of environmental initiatives which were begun by the airport in 2009 under the Green Cargo Hub banner. Incheon started by supplying some 400 lightweight air cargo containers to airlines and ground handlers in 2010, claiming a reduction of 28,000 tonnes in CO2
gas emissions, and
has since promoted the adoption of environmentally-friendly biodegradable and photodegradable air cargo packaging materials.
The vinyl packaging used for the pallet covers incorporates material such as cornflour, which speeds up their decomposition in the natural
GROUND HANDLING INTERNATIONAL APRIL 2013
environment. “Whereas conventional vinyl takes
more than 16 years after burial before it starts to decompose, the biodegradable vinyl starts to decompose just eight months after burial,” the corporation reveals. However, the downside to the initiative is that the packaging is 80% more expensive than conventional polyethylene vinyl.
WheelTug: attractive plan for customers unveiled
Last issue, we looked at the options available to operators seeking a greener taxi-ing operation. One of the proponents, WheelTug, has since come up with an interesting proposal for would-be users. To make the environmentally- friendly towing solution as attractive to customers as possible, the manufacturer has decided to offer the system to airlines and then share the savings with them. The plan is for the system to be supplied and installed for an airline at no charge; thereafter, the airline will only pay WheelTug when savings are generated. WheelTug is also highlighting the flexibility of the whole concept: indeed, the system can be installed and removed in 16 hours on a Boeing 737, and this time could be reduced to just eight hours on an A320. Besides this, the WheelTug system is MEMO (Mission- Essential Maintenance Operations) exempt, which reduces the likelihood of AOG if the system fails. This seems to be working: today, the company has 285 systems on order from six different airlines, including KLM, Jet Airways, Alitalia, OnuAir and El-Al, as the launch customer. Discussions with no fewer than 200 other airlines continue in the meantime.
Ballard secures grant for further research into fuel cells
Ballard Power Systems has been awarded approximately C$2.0m in funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada for a one-year extension to a project that is furthering the commercialisation of the company’s fuel cell power module for use in the transit bus market.
In January 2010, the SDTC awarded
Ballard up to C$4.8m for a development project under which Ballard has now completed the design, testing and implementation of new sub-systems for its FCvelocity-HD6 power module. The project has improved durability and reliability of the power module as well as reduced its cost.
Many of these design improvements
were successfully implemented with the BC Transit fuel cell hybrid bus fleet in Whistler, British Columbia, which has led to improved overall performance. As a testament to its operation, Whistler’s 20-bus fleet has surpassed the 1.7m mile (2.8m kilometre) threshold for revenue service to that community, since entering service early in 2010. “Our government is doing its part to encourage innovation and the next wave of clean technologies to help protect our environment and create high quality jobs,” commented the Honourable Joe Oliver, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources. “Investment in projects such as these demonstrates our leadership in driving a vibrant clean technology industry in Canada.” Dr Vicky Sharpe, President and CEO of SDTC, added: “These improvements in cost effectiveness and performance of fuel cell hybrid buses will make them more accessible to public transit authorities in Canada. Since heavy duty diesel vehicles account for almost half of greenhouse gas emissions emanating from Canada’s roads, cleaner buses can be a significant help in improving air quality.”
During the project extension, to run
through October 2013, Ballard will focus on the standardisation of certain product components and optimisation of the power module’s balance-of-plant and control systems in order to further reduce cost as well as improve the manufacturing process of the FCvelocity-HD6. Tony Guglielmin, Ballard’s CFO, applauded the decision. “We appreciate the continued support of the Canadian Federal Government and SDTC, which is certainly helping accelerate product cost reductions. In turn, this enables more competitive positioning relative to incumbent diesel buses, which will further the adoption of clean energy fuel cell products for mass transit in Canada, the US, Europe and other locations around the globe.”
Global approach mooted by IATA
At the end of February IATA called on governments to agree to a global approach on market-based measures and to align with the industry in helping achieve its environmental targets. As these measures would only be a temporary stop-gap, attention also needed to be paid to the other parts of the industry’s strategy, particularly that of sustainable biofuel development and the improvement of air traffic management efficiency. Speaking at the Greener Skies
conference in Hong Kong, Tony Tyler pointed out that compromises would be
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68