Air Monitoring - UK Focus vii
Improving Air Quality and Reducing Transport Related Pollution
Air quality and pollution related medical complaints in the UK are defi nitely one of the latest ‘hot topics’ for many industry commentators and media as they refl ect on the impact such issues are having on the health of the nation.
Many transport haulage fl eet operators recognise the need to make substantial cuts in their carbon emissions. As the UK government’s Low Carbon Emissions Task Force has recognised, this requires increased availability of low carbon fuels such as biomethane - a second generation bio-fuel (i.e. waste derived) and not from a crop based source.
While this is certainly a long term problem that has been worsening for many years, it has really only drawn close attention – and media headlines - since the cocktail of man-made pollutants and Saharan dust hit the country in early April. More recently diesel used in road transport has emerged as possibly the major cause of some of the more serious elements, particularly harmful particulate matter and a range of other noxious elements.
But while much is said and written about the dangers to public health, few commentators have looked beyond the negatives to see what possible solutions there might be and to lend weight to encourage their greater adoption.
Ben Sawford
Gasrec Chief Commercial Offi cer London offi ce
19 Eastbourne Terrace Paddington Station London, W2 6LG Tel: 0203 004 6888
Email:
bsawford@gasrec.co.uk Web:
www.gasrec.co.uk
Driven by concerns that we are not meeting critical air quality standards, over which the EU has already launched legal proceedings against the UK, much has been made of the government’s proposals to implement 60 mph speed limits at some locations on our motorways in an attempt to reduce emissions from the hundreds of thousands of vehicle using these stretches of the network daily.
For the transport world, this is not a new challenge. Design and technical innovation are generally delivering performance enhancements across the board, with Euro 6 vehicles being deployed that represent excellent improvements in air quality emission performance along with electric and hybrid vehicles proving most promising at the lighter end of the spectrum. However, at the heavier end containing the nation’s fl eet of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), there exists a conundrum of maintaining effi ciency levels while improving air quality emissions and balancing against CO2
emissions. Perhaps this, the CO2 benefi ts, is where the real problem lies – and where the next big
step change will only really come from vehicle conversions to run on lower emission gas fuels, either as dedicated gas or with expansion of existing dual-fuel fl eets.
Although only representing one per cent of UK road vehicles, HGVs produce a disproportionate 17 per cent of the carbon emissions from UK road transport and a signifi cantly higher proportion of the more dangerous particulate matter and other noxious elements.
Many transport haulage fl eet operators recognise the need to make substantial cuts in their carbon emissions. As the UK government’s Low Carbon Emissions Task Force has recognised, this requires increased availability of low carbon fuels such as biomethane - a second generation bio-fuel (i.e. waste derived) and not from a crop based source. No other fuel currently exists in commercial quantities for this size and weight of vehicle that can be sustainably produced to meet this need, including natural (fossil) gas, although this does constitute a valuable role in the mix with biomethane as long as the biomethane content in the mix is suffi ciently high.
The heavier loaded and longer distance HGVs which tend to use the most fuel and therefore create more carbon emissions need this biomethane in liquefi ed (LBM) rather than compressed (CNG) form in order to be able to achieve their driving range requirements. Substantially reducing these emissions will contribute signifi cantly to the UK’s overall carbon reduction commitments and, because so much of the technology required to produce and use biomethane in this sector is currently British, it should also drive economic growth.
Over the last 10 years, Gasrec has pioneered the use of liquefi ed
www.envirotech-online.com IET Annual Buyers’ Guide 2014/15
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