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As well as becoming more efficient at burning diesel (see A Greener Industry), the road transport industry has also pioneered alternative fuel engines. Although none has such a broad range of uses as diesel yet, there is still a range of options available for different applications.
Urban vehicles in particular can now be powered by electricity, which, although it relies mainly on fossil fuels to recharge the batteries, is completely emission-free at the tailpipe. Electric vehicles are most often associated with Smith Electric and Modec, but hybrids are fast making their way into the commercial offerings of large truck manufacturers.
Hybrids have the advantage of electric start-up, and clean running in heavy urban traffic, where many gear changes and frequent pull-aways can push up diesel emissions. Hybrids also recapture some of the energy lost when braking and store it for the next acceleration. On trunk roads at optimum speed, diesel once again becomes the most effective and efficient power source.
Renault’s Hybrys is one example, but Iveco’s EuroCargo and Daily will also be in production as hybrids this year. Volvo says its FM hybrid can offer up to 35% fuel savings, while the hybrid Fuso Canter – with a three-litre Euro-4 diesel engine coupled to a 35kW electric motor – which Mercedes is trialling with 10 customers, boasts 20%.
Hydrogen is great at storing energy, but the electricity will generally come from an unsustainable source. Hydrogen is expensive to make and difficult to store. Despite these drawbacks, companies such as MAN have been pouring research money into hydrogen fuel cells that have been powering municipal buses in
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) both have their proponents among road transport operators – and their detractors. But manufacturers have been working consistently to improve the performance of gas-powered trucks so that, for instance, there is no longer the noticeable power loss that caused concern a few years ago.
A front-runner in the alternative fuels race is biofuel. All the manufacturers have embraced it, upgrading warranty support from the standard 5% pretty much on demand, provided the operator respects the shortened service intervals. However, biofuels have become controversial, mainly because of the politics of food production and the proliferation of ecologically unsustainable source crops, such as palm. But the fact remains that biofuels are an important and, crucially, an available part of easing pressure on oil reserves and cutting emissions. There are plenty of environmentally friendly feedstocks developing, and these will be important as the basis of the next generation of gas-to-liquid fuels made from biomass.
Road transport operators have done much to create and shape the biofuels industry; manufacturers in their turn have attempted to read the market and provide answers to some of the emerging questions. Scania, for instance, has been running bioethanol buses – it has now become the first to engineer a bioethanol truck. Bioethanol, more usually a replacement for petrol, has a wider range of feedstocks, including wheat, sugar beet and peas, so does not necessarily compete with UK food producers for limited resources.
Ken Moore, the technical communications manager at Iveco, says another untapped source manufacturers will turn their attention to is biogas. Essentially, the three immediate sources are household waste, farm waste and sewage, all of which generate huge quantities of methane. A simple and cheap treatment can remove the CO2 and water, and the gas can be burned cleanly. Dimethyl ether, biogas and combinations of gas with diesel all present more possibilities.
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