Motor Transport Decarbonisation Summit 2023

Decarbonisation Summit: tackling the big industry issues Birmingham, 24 November 2023

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CONTENTS

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Keynote presentation The event opened with delegates hearing the latest moves in industry-wide efforts to hit freight’s ambitious green targets

Panel 1: Framework for change Delegates shared their views on the challenges facing the industry in its drive to decarbonisation

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Panel 2: Energy choices Visitors heard a lively debate on energy alternatives, and if one solution really will suit all applications and businesses

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Panel 3: The mountain to climb Many operators are already on their journey to decarbonising their fleets, with lessons learnt and experiences shared the key to success

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Study tour Delegates visited a multi-fuel, lowcarbon refuelling site in Birmingham, which aims to transform clean energy innovation in the city

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Freight Carbon Zero Freight Carbon Zero’s information resources are available to give all industry stakeholders an insight into the trends and developments driving the sector’s shift to carbon-zero

All event images: SiraStudio

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Supplement editor Contributors

Andy Salter Steve Hobson, Hayley Tayler

Group production manager

Isabel Burton

Production editor

Clare Goldie

Welcome hile the final agreement from the UN’s COP28 conference to transition away from Andy Salter fossil fuels might not have satisfied MD, Road everyone, it is a first step in what many Transport are heralding as the beginning of the Media end for diesel and petrol. No doubt further conferences will firm up the commitments as nations strive to reduce the impact of global warming.

While the Motor Transport Decarbonisation Summit, held the week before COP28 started in Dubai, may not have generated the media headlines of the global gathering, it was nevertheless a significant demonstration of the direction of travel for this sector as it shifts to low-carbon fuelling options and gets to grips with the challenges of embracing zero emission vehicles.

Held in association with our industry partners bp, Optimize and Scania, nearly 200 industry professionals attended the summit to discuss the sector’s main topics. Over the coming pages we give an overview of the key themes discussed, detail the insights and observations and explore some of the challenges facing the industry. This year we also arranged a study tour at the Tyseley Energy Park, where delegates saw some of the low- and zero-carbon fuelling solutions on offer to the industry.

While there is much for the UK’s road freight industry to do as it makes its transition away from fossil fuels we, at Motor Transport and our sister website Freight Carbon Zero, are committed to ensuring you are best informed to make those decisions. We’ve pencilled in 7 November for the Decarbonisation Summit 2024 and we’ll be in touch with details later in the year to give you the chance to come along and join the discussion.

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MOTOR TRANSPORT DECARBONISATION SUMMIT 3

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Charging towards zero Delegates heard the latest moves in industry-wide efforts to hit freight’s ambitious green targets he DfT has given the strongest hint yet that it is likely to introduce a zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate for trucks in the run up to the bans on new sales of non-zero emission HGVs coming into effect in 2035 (vehicles up to 26 tonnes) and 2040 (all trucks).

Speaking at the Motor Transport Decarbonisation Summit in Birmingham on 23 November, DfT deputy director for decarbonisation strategy Bob Moran said: “The Df T was looking closely at whether a ZEV mandate was appropriate for HGVs, similar to that in place for cars and vans.”

Prime minister Rishi Sunak delayed the ban on sales of fossil fuelled cars and vans from 2030 to 2035 but left the ZEV mandate for these vehicles in place. This requires that 10% of all new vans sold in Great Britain in 2024 must be zero emission, rising to 24% by 2026, 70% by 2030 and 100% by 2035.

While there is no equivalent phasing-in of zero-emission trucks, Moran said the end of sale dates for trucks were “locked in” and the government was committed to passing legislation implementing the bans.

The European Commission’s Vecto regulations

require truck makers to cut average emissions from their products by 15% by 2025, and 30% by 2030, compared with a 2019 baseline. But Moran said that since Brexit the UK was able to take a different approach.

“Don’t assume we will set six-monthly ticking-up targets,” he said.

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Building capacity LEADING MAN: DPD head of sustainability Olly Craughan

The big barrier to adoption of battery electric trucks remains the lack of charging infrastructure and, in the absence of any promise of additional public funding on top of the £1bn Rapid Charging Fund, which is focused on expanding public charging for cars, Moran urged delegates to “impress on ChargeUK [the trade association for vehicle charge point installers and operators] the need to consider commercial vehicle charging”.

Moran commended the recently announced

to give companies the confidence to invest,” he said. “The Connections Action Plan launched last year will change the way we connect charging.”

The plan sets out a strategy for government, energy regulator Ofgem and industry to accelerate connections.

On the front foot

zero emission HGV and infrastructure demonstration (ZEHID) programme. The scheme is being funded with £200m of public money and will see 400 battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell trucks, hundreds of charge points and an additional seven hydrogen fuelling stations put into real-life operations. The programme was originally to have been called the zero emission road freight trial (ZERFT) and the announcement of the four demonstrator programmes was severely delayed.

“This is the biggest kickstart we could have achieved with that money,” he said. “We changed the name because it will now cover infrastructure not just trucks. I’m sorry it took so long but this is a tough time for public finance.

“It will be a game-changer. I am confident we will decarbonise the freight sector. But it has to be in a fair and pragmatic way that lowers costs.”

Public funds While the government’s plug-in truck grant will remain in place until at least March 2025, Moran stressed that the government saw funding for ZEHID as a better use of public money than direct subsidies. “Government’s approach is to fund demonstrations and introduce smart regulation

OUT OF DARKNESS: The DfT’s Bob Moran said the UK is likely to diverge from the EU’s Vecto regulations

Responding on behalf of the transport industry, Olly Craughan, head of sustainability at DPD UK, said that despite challenges with charging infrastructure, the parcels giant was progressing well with the roll-out of battery electric vans but that “the big kit is not there with electric yet”.

Craughan, named the top Decarbonisation Power Player in Motor Transport’s 2023 Top 25, told delegates everyone had to play their part in cutting emissions and heading off catastrophic global warming. “Don’t say ‘if the US and China don’t do something, there is no point’,” he urged.

“Take the lead.”

DPD has set itself the goal of being net zero by 2040 and is on track to achieve a 46% cut in emissions by 2024 compared with 2020. By the end of last year the company had invested £120m in putting 3,645 electric delivery vehicles on the road. These represent almost a third of the delivery fleet and will deliver 65 million parcels, or 17% of DPD’s total UK volumes. This year, 40% of vans will be battery electric and will deliver 100 million parcels, more than a quarter of DPD’s UK volumes. The plan is to be 100% electric by 2030, despite charging infrastructure remaining a major challenge.

“We don’t want to take up public charging points,” said Craughan. “We want depot charging that we will make available to other fleets when we are not using it.”

At DPD’s sorting centre in Docklands, there are 20 75kW chargers for a van fleet that will deliver 80,000 parcels a day to London without the need to trunk them to the Midlands hubs.

Craughan added that for the HGV fleet, electrification was not yet an option – so the company has invested in HVO, a renewable drop-in replacement for diesel, as an intermediate measure.

Despite the increased cost, the plan was to switch to 100% HVO by the end of 2023. “This is the easiest transition as there are no changes required to the vehicles,” he said. Q MOTOR TRANSPORT DECARBONISATION SUMMIT 5

PANEL 1: FRAMEWORK FOR CHANGE

Delegates shared their views on the challenges facing the industry in its drive to decarbonisation

Framework for change he first panel session was facilitated

by Andy Salter, conference chairman and editor of the Freight Carbon Zero newsletter. He asked delegates to participate in a “word cloud” (right), sharing their thoughts on the biggest challenges industry faces in the drive to decarbonisation and the introduction of zero-emission vehicles.

While the results were perhaps predictable, it reinforced the views of the industry and framed up the discussion points.

The session started with a discussion about legislation and regulation, not something the industry usually calls for, but in this case most of the panellists were in agreement that new and/or amended regulations were required to give the sector clarity in the direction of movement. Ian Jones cited the case of containerisation and how regulation was introduced to give conformity to prevent the proliferation of container sizes. “Within two years of the first container shipments, there were more than 30 different sizes of container in the US,” he said.

“It needed the Jones Act, to bring in regulation to ensure there was one size of container.”

“Regulation gives investors certainty,” said Pamma, representing the interests of the investment community. “It gives investors certainty about the direction of travel, and it means they can

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HAVING THEIR SAY: (from left) Ian Jones; Lauren Pamma; Ben Garner; Chris Welch; Louis Jones; Bob Moran; and Andy Salter

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see certainty about future revenues and demand.”

Pamma explained how the Green Finance Institute was releasing a report looking at the barriers to decarbonising HGVs and how it is essential for the finance sector to enable that transition. “We are looking at what new financial products will be needed,” she said. “How can we build knowledge with investors and lenders who are active in this area and encourage investment. We think £100bn is needed and that can’t all come from government. So the private sector is needed and that’s what we’re trying to achieve.”

Mandate for trucks?

Salter was keen to hear the panel’s views on how the end-of-sale dates for trucks will be embraced in the framework. “Are we going to have a zero-emission vehicle mandate for trucks, as we have with cars and vans, or should we be focused on CO2 emissions reductions using the Vecto process, as the EU is doing?” he asked.

“The policy position is zero emission at the exhaust,” said Moran, “and the regulation [for the zero emission vehicle mandate for cars and vans] just includes carbon. That’s because of the unique powers we’re using under the Climate Change Act, which doesn’t allow us to do anything around other pollutant emissions from the exhaust.

“[For trucks] we will probably look to the Climate Change Act to deliver regulation that we think is effective and delivers the outcome that we want.

We can’t match what’s happening in the EU, we’ve got to design our own framework. We’ll do what we think is right for the UK.” While Moran wasn’t committing to the introduction of a truck mandate, it would appear this is the direction of travel for the sector. Scania’s Louis Jones outlined how the truck builder has set out its long-term vision to align with the regulatory framework. “Scania has ambitions for the percentage of new zero-emission truck sales, which are in line with the expected end-of-sales dates,” he said. “By 2025, our ambition is 10% of new vehicle sales to be zero emission, and then 50% by 2030, on a global level. That sets our ambition from a production perspective, and that will tie into the 2035 and 2040 dates. We’re on the right trajectory.”

Garner is responsible for the decarbonisation of logistics at Tarmac and has been vocal in sharing the company’s thoughts on the shift to battery EVs, particularly regarding weights and dimensions – a topic that scored highly in the conference word cloud. “Where some businesses might have an issue around range [with EVs], we have an issue around payload,” he said, “and that is a blocker to our decarbonisation. In terms of our modelling, we need about 20% more trucks on the road to move the same amount of material, which is just not feasible, especially given the challenges we have regarding driver availability.”

Moran made some encouraging comments about the government’s attitudes to weights and dimensions, indicating there could be some flexibility on the way. The Df T has awarded a contract for a research study “to show us what the opportunities are in terms of moving to zero-emission power-trains for CVs”, he said. “We want to look at the entire vehicle, what the opportunities are around weights, dimensions and design. We need to look at them in parallel with what we’re doing with type approval.”

While much of the talk focused around battery EVs, Ian Jones introduced hydrogen into the debate – a subject that would be returned to later in the day, see page 8. “I’m wondering whether the weight thing is not a bit of a red herring,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with the internal combustion engine.

The problem lies with burning dead dinosaurs [in the form of fossil fuel]. If we look at hydrogen as

being a future opportunity and if we’re using hydrogen rather than battery electric for longer distances, we can remain within the weights that we have now. If we can get the hydrogen infrastructure in place, we can keep the internal combustion engine, and we can keep the payloads that we’ve got.”

Mapping the road Welch is one of a number of operators that has taken the plunge with EVs, introducing a 19-tonne battery electric rigid into the fleet in 2023. “Our initial steps have been about mapping the road to net zero,” he said. “We’ve gone through processes with bodies like the Energy Saving Trust to establish what we can do. The challenge is understanding the total cost of operation to ensure we don’t commit commercial suicide with our customers.

We’re taking it step by step and trying to do as much as you can, while the legislation continues to evolve, manufacturers develop the technology and the infrastructure rolls out to get there.”

All participants agreed sharing knowledge and information between operators and other stakeholders is a key part of the early stages of decarbonisation. “We’ve had an electric concrete mixer truck in the fleet for more than 12 months,” explained Garner, sharing an experience from Tarmac. “We knew, with the benefit of the extra 2-tonne weight dispensation, payload would be fine and it delivers the range we need.

“Cost has been the major barrier with this type of vehicle and it has opened up the conversation regarding total cost of ownership (TCO), which we now understand more than previously. We understand where the pain points are, whether it’s initial capital, or the residual value, we know what the barriers are.

I’m confident we can solve the cost issue in the next six months and if we can, for that particular vehicle type, we will only buy an EV in future.”

A key part of the roll-out programme in the UK is being led by the government-funded zero emission HGV and infrastructure demonstration, a project in which Scania is a leading participant.

“We see it as a massive catalyst to prove initially over the three years of the vehicles being deployed that zero-emission vehicles can be ordered today,” Louis Jones explained. “And then crucially, over the following five years, gathering the information to give insights into TCO, range and all the other associated operating factors.” ■ MOTOR TRANSPORT DECARBONISATION SUMMIT 7

PANEL 2: ENERGY CHOICES

Horses for cours Delegates heard a lively debate on energy alternatives, and if one solution will suit all needs

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crapping like cats in a sack” was how one delegate summarised the heated exchange of views between the battery and hydrogen advocates, which dominated the second panel discussion of the summit.

The panel’s task was to review the different energy alternatives available to the sector as it makes its way along the decarbonisation path. The low- and zero-carbon options are well known to most in the sector – HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil), biomethane, bio-diesel, battery electric and hydrogen – although whether we will end up with one dominant fuelling solution, as we have with diesel, is the hotly debated subject.

Cost premium Gaynor Hartnell, chief executive of the Renewable Transport Fuels Association, made the case for low-carbon fuels. “Under the renewable transport fuel obligation (RTFO) we already have a mandate

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for increasing the amount of renewable transport fuel that is supplied to the market,” she said.

“We hear a lot about the cost premium of HVO, but the RTFO addresses the cost premium between diesel and biodiesel, or FAME (fatty acid methyl esters), as it’s also known. You can have a fuel that has a carbon saving equivalent to that of HVO today at no extra cost to an operator.”

Tim Harper, CEO at Element 2, a specialist in hydrogen refuelling, echoed the prevailing sense of urgency at the summit. “As entrepreneurs, it’s our job to get on with things whether the government supports it or not. One of the big problems with hydrogen refuelling [at the start] was that everybody was waiting for government subsidies, so people could build all this expensive technology.

“We took a different approach, which allows us to deploy more refuelling stations. We’re working with about 45 UK projects on supplying green hydrogen to drive down the cost of getting hydrogen from where it’s made and into vehicle tanks.”

Adrian Brabazon from bp, another participant in the ZEHID-funded projects, agreed. “As Tim says, we’re all about getting on with the job. We’ve chosen to bid for the combination of hydrogen fuel cell and battery electric [the project bp is

es?

involved in will see both vehicle types go on the road] because we believe there is a future for both.

In the short term, we see a role for gas, which hasn’t had much of a mention today; there’s a lot of demand for gas. This is a positive environment, with challenges of course, but there is an appetite.”

Scania has long been an advocate of battery EVs, although it recently indicated hydrogen will play a part in the journey to net zero for road transport.

Daniel Schulze was representing the Swedish truck builder on the panel. “We talk a lot about the challenges of electrification when it comes to infrastructure,” he explained, “but from the discussions we are having with our customers we can see a lot are able to charge in the home depot, or destination charging. We often forget that you could electrify a lot of vehicles without being dependent on public charging and people often underestimate that.”

Government subsidies Professor David Cebon from the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight is a very vocal critic of the role for hydrogen in the decarbonisation of road transport. He took the opportunity to dismantle the arguments for deploying hydrogen as a road fuel. “Hydrogen-powered vehicles use three times more electricity, to produce, store and transport the hydrogen, than a battery EV does,” he told the conference. “Hydrogen vehicles will always require substantial government subsidies to make them work, simply because of the energy costs. I’m afraid hydrogen will require subsidies forever.”

Cebon also turned his attention to debunking the myth about “horses for courses”, a commonly heard view that industry will require both battery electric and hydrogen-fuelled vehicles to satisfy all use cases. “This idea that we’re going to have horses for courses, is not true,” he said. “You can’t have 20% of the market [requiring a different fuelling solution] and have a viable business [for the fuel suppliers]. We’re going to have to adopt a single solution and it’s not going to be hydrogen.”

Naturally this caused a reaction from Harper and a robust argument ensued. “That’s very much a red herring,” he said, responding to Cebon’s energy claim, “because we’re all in the business

of getting stuff from one end of the country to the other. If you’ve got to carry five tonnes of batteries at the same time, and then sit around waiting for that vehicle to charge for four or five hours, that gets rid of the operational efficiency.

“I was talking to an operator recently, who was looking at battery electric, and it doesn’t work [for the operation], so it’s having to buy diesel. If you’re on a tight margin, you can’t afford to be carting tonnes of batteries up and down the country. And even if you do, the charging infrastructure isn’t there.

“I disagree that we will end up with one solution for everything. Never in the field of human history have we relied solely on one energy source. We’re talking about climate change here. If we start saying we’re going to cut off all of the other options, then it’s going to take us a lot longer to get anywhere.”

Clarke wading in on the argument: “I think, you know the technology [of battery electric vehicles] is advancing rapidly. The battery density is improving, the weight of the batteries is coming down, the charging capability and power is going up.

We’re already at a stage where a lot of the transport network can be electrified. I’m not necessarily against hydrogen. If it’s commercially viable, and it stacks up, and it is purely green, then great. Let’s have it. But that isn’t the case at the moment.”

“Technology neutral is clearly the way regulation should be done,” said Hartnell, cooling some of the heated exchanges. She underlined the view, shared by many of the delegates and the other panellists, that all available low-carbon solutions will need to be deployed. “Why are you throwing out the baby with the bathwater? For the very heaviest, very highest intensity vehicles you can get really good emission savings from things like biomethane,” she added.

Perfect mix Despite the heated arguments during the discussion, the audience poll at the end of the session remained swayed by the “horse for courses” viewpoint. When asked which camp they were in, 56% said it was horses for courses and there would need to be a mix of fuelling solutions, while 40% were persuaded by the battery electric arguments. ■

SPEAK EASY: (far left, from top) Sam Clarke; Gaynor Hartnell; Tim Harper; (opposite, from top) Adrian Brabazon; Daniel Schulze; David Cebon

To hear a recording of the full “Energy Choices” panel discussion, go to freghtcarbonzero.com MOTOR TRANSPORT DECARBONISATION SUMMIT 9

PANEL 3: THE MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB

On the same road Many operators are already on their journey to decarbonising their fleets, with lessons learnt and experiences shared the key to success he mountain to climb’ was the title of the afternoon session, with experts and operators debating the challenges and key steps for operators starting their decarbonisation journey.

Opening the session, Motor Transport editor Steve Hobson did a snap poll of the audience to see how far they had travelled on their road to zero.

The results revealed a positive attitude, with approximately half of respondents already taking action and a further 30% planning their strategy. And 3% of delegates stated they were fully engaged already and the end destination was in sight. The remainder were still sitting on the fence about which direction to travel.

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DOING THE TALKING: (from left) Ian Greene; David Cormack; Tim

Getting going…

Campbell; Sunny Pawar;

A good starting point for operators looking to decarbonise is to ensure they are doing the basics

Ross Conroy; Alan

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Lewis; Steve Hobson

well, advised Alan Lewis, technical director at Amsterdam-based Smart Freight Centre, rather than expecting a fix-all technology to solve all the industry’s challenges.

“The thing that worries me most is that there is a focus on ‘there will be a silver bullet in terms of a carbon-free energy solution’,” he said. “It’s easy to overlook all the other issues, such as optimisation, fuel efficiency and the basic measures any operator should have in place; making sure that message gets reinforced all the time. It all needs to come together. Otherwise you don’t stand a chance of meeting target use.”

Ross Conroy, head of research and development at Optimize, said that not only can a better understanding of existing fleet utilisation have positive gains immediately, but it can help as operators explore the transition to electric vehicles (EVs). “A lot of people will be surprised. They will look at their routes and think there’s no way an EV could possibly do that mileage, or that type of route, or that many hills,” he said.

“Then they run them through an optimisation software and find they’re not doing things in a

very optimal way and if they optimise their routes to be more beneficial, they might find it could fit with what an EV could cope with.”

Working together Collaboration is key to driving faster change across the sector, the panel agreed, with government-led projects an integral tool to bringing stakeholders together. Sunny Pawar, head of climate change and net zero at Kuehne+Nagel (K+N), said: “What we’ve seen, which probably couldn’t have happened as fast, or maybe not at all, is initiatives such as the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator Programme where Innovate UK has brought people together.

“We’re having conversations with, on a commercial landscape, our competitors. But in these programmes we’ve got a shared, vested interest to come together to figure out which routes can be electrified or zero carbon and where we need those infrastructure points.”

He said the two government-supported programmes K+N is working on with Gridserve and Voltempo – Electric Freightway and eFREIGHT2030 – will support the company’s SME supply chain. “It creates a safe place for collaboration. And once that gets going, you can unlock the opportunities.”

Scale of the challenge Commercial vehicle consultant Tim Campbell said this willingness to collaborate is also being demonstrated by truck manufacturers as they recognise the scale of the challenge facing industry. Major OEMs are working together on projects such as developing fuel cell technology and the creation of a European-wide network of high-powered electric truck chargers.

“They’ve realised that this is not an individual manufacturer’s challenge, the same as it’s not an individual logistics company’s challenge. This is a challenge for the industry,” he explained.

“If you don’t open your mind, we’re not going to get anywhere. This is a watershed moment: we’re doing in 120 months what we did in 120 years. And it means a change from the manufacturers and everybody else in the supply chain. The biggest thing is to get on with it and get into the game. Don’t sit on the side lines,” Campbell added.

Brighton & Hove Council is a local authority

frontrunner when it comes to decarbonising its 538-strong mixed fleet, which ranges from mopeds to tractors and HGVs. Andy Greene, head of fleet management, was charged with developing a new fleet strategy to support the aim of being carbon neutral by 2030. To begin the process, rather than transitioning immediately to EVs, it focused on maximising the utilisation of its existing vehicles.

“The culture before I joined was very much ‘we’ve got a new guy starting and let’s buy him a van’. And we had to break that cycle, which was very difficult,” explained Greene.

“Now we’ve got utilisation plans for every vehicle and that’s key. Because obviously the cost of an EV against diesel or petrol is immense and you want value for your money, so you want it out on the road as much as possible. For example, we’ve started shifting vehicles as opposed to parking them up for 16 hours a day,” he added.

The council has started to move to EVs, with approximately 15% of the fleet transitioned.

Driving force Driver training has also been a major focus for the council, with significant benefits, said Greene.

“It’s turned our fleet around from a daily charge to charging at best every three days for a 27-tonne vehicle. Our vans were charged once a week. We’ve cut down on the amount of energy that we spend by nearly 50%, just by training people properly.”

He added that drivers, despite some initial apprehension about switching to EVs, have embraced the new technology. “One of our driver champions said that we’ve changed his life since we put him in an EV. This guy has been driving trucks for more than 30 years, and couldn’t believe that an electric one would have worked and that it would make such a difference.”

David Cormack, director at 50 Shades Greener, said drivers can also have a much wider role to play in industry’s journey. “I was talking to a finalmile organisation, and it said with the investment it had made in EVs, it wanted drivers who could be brand ambassadors, who are on the road, ‘talking our language’.

“This is a journey to net zero that needs to be promoted and environmental, social governance is a big part of that journey.

“The key message is that the cultural piece runs in parallel with that.” ■ MOTOR TRANSPORT DECARBONISATION SUMMIT 11

STUDY TOUR

Back to school Delegates visited a multi-fuel, low-carbon refuelling site in Birmingham, which aims to transform clean energy innovation in the city

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study tour to the Tyseley Energy Park in Birmingham was added to this year’s event. The tour, on the eve of the summit, gave delegates the opportunity to see the projects and developments at this innovative facility.

The park is a 10-acre development site in central Birmingham that incorporates a multi-fuel, low-carbon refuelling site with the Birmingham Energy Innovation Centre, a Birmingham University research and testing facility, which aims to transform clean energy innovation in the city and the West Midlands. The site is owned by Webster and Horsfall, one of the oldest manufacturing firms in Birmingham, and the company is regenerating the area with a cross-section of partnerships covering the renewables sector.

The park has four main components: a 10MW waste wood biomass power plant that supplies renewable electricity to local businesses; the UK’s first low- and zero-carbon refuelling station that provides sustainable fuels for public and commer-

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ON SITE: (from left) Event sponsor Scania demonstrated its range of low- and zero-carbon vehicles; the Birmingham Energy Innovation Centre is a Birmingham University research facility

cial vehicles; the Birmingham Energy Innovation Centre that stimulates collaborative research and development projects; and the park has recently secured £20m funding to establish the National Centre for the Decarbonisation of Heat, a research facility focused on decarbonising homes.

Delegates visited three areas of the site: refuelling; research projects; and a classroom session.

Refuelling facility SSE Energy Solutions revealed its plans for a new four-berth HGV electric charging facility at Tyseley.

Installation of the chargers will start in Q1 2024 and will feature 360kW chargers that can charge up to four battery electric trucks at a time, delivering up to 300km of range in two hours, says the company. The project is part of SSE’s strategy to build 500 ultra-rapid charging hubs for electric cars and CVs powered by traceable, renewable energy in the UK and Ireland by 2030.

Scania had a battery electric truck hooked up to a charger to demonstrate the simplicity of connection, while the company, an event sponsor, had one of its mobile EV chargers on display to give fleet users a taste of how the company can support them in their transition to EVs with a simple at-depot charging solution.

With the CNG Fuels site located nearby at Erdington, the Tyseley site does not include a biomethane refueller, instead it features an HVO fuelling station and a hydrogen electrolyser and connection. The hydrogen refuelling at the park is a key component of the site, hosting the UK’s largest green hydrogen refuelling station, which supports the City of Birmingham’s hydrogen bus fleet, as well as hydrogen fuelled refuse trucks.

The hydrogen is produced on site using a 3MW electrolyser that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is stored in high purity tanks and dispensed at 700bar and 350bar for quick and efficient refuelling.

The refuelling station is part of the Tyseley Ammonia to Green Hydrogen Project, which aims to produce green hydrogen from ammonia. The project is led by the Ammogen Consortium, a team of partners from the energy, transport, and academic sectors. The project is funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and has received £6.7m in support.

The ammonia cracker uses technology developed

recycling of rare earth metals from electromagnetics; the use of robotics for end-of-life lithium-ion battery recycling and the automotive applications of hydrogen fuel cells.

Classroom

by H2SITE, a UK-based company that specialises in hydrogen production from ammonia. The technology involves cracking ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen using a high-temperature furnace, which is more efficient than conventional methods of producing hydrogen from natural gas or coal.

The hydrogen produced will be filtered and purified for use as fuel in various applications, such as buses and trucks. The project will deliver 200kg per day of transport-grade hydrogen and is expected to be operational in Q1 2024.

LISTEN AND LEARN:

Research and development projects

Event sponsor Optimize

Delegates were also given a tour of the research facility looking at some of the projects under way.

The session kicked off with a presentation from Olga Gavrilijeva, a strategy analyst with the Scania Pilot Partner Programme. Delegates got a glimpse at some of the developments the Swedish truck giant is working on.

The Pilot Partner initiative is part of Scania’s e-Mobility development to bring pilot projects and small series units into the market quickly to test and gather learnings. Gavrilijeva explained that while Scania believes direct renewable electrification using battery electric vehicles is the most efficient sustainable solution, there is a place for fuel cell EVs as a complementary solution for certain applications and regions. She said Scania will be providing hydrogen fuel cell trucks as part of the UK government’s ZEHID programme.

The university researchers then gave an overview of several ground-breaking projects including the

gave a lesson on applied algorithms; SSE unveiled plans for a new EV charging facility; delegates were able to get up close to a range of new research projects

In the classroom, speakers gave delegates a lesson in the basics of key areas of road freight decarbonisation – the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to the optimisation of vehicles and schedules; the latest developments in battery technology and a look into the workings of a hydrogen fuel cell.

Dr Ross Conroy, head of R&D at event sponsor Optimize, took visitors through the basics of applied algorithms and how this is being used in the company’s routeing and scheduling services to drive reductions in carbon emissions and improved operational efficiency. Typically operators using optimisation services will benefit from double-digit percentage efficiency gains, said Conroy, while he also gave delegates a glimpse into the future possibilities for the application of AI in logistics, handling even more complex operational challenges.

Michael Boxwell, CEO of charging hub specialist Voltempo, which is based at the Tyseley Energy Park, shifted the focus to energy storage and the developments in battery technology.

Boxwell has been involved in lithium-ion battery development for 30 years and briefed visitors on the operating principles of the battery, the inherent compromise in battery performance between available power and energy storage and the developments expected. For the future, Boxwell explained the three possible breakthrough solutions: solid state; sodium; and lithium nobium.

Hydrogen fuel cells are often promoted as the breakthrough opportunity for CVs and Brendan Bilton, CTO at hydrogen specialist Element 2, gave an overview of the basics of fuel cell operation, explaining a fuel cell is, in effect, a hydrogen battery.

He warned that the production tolerances necessary for fuel cell production are very exacting and this will affect cost. Bilton indicated the hydrogen internal combustion engine, often considered the wild card of CV decarbonisation, may offer a stronger alternative for the future. ■ MOTOR TRANSPORT DECARBONISATION SUMMIT 13

FREIGHT CARBON ZERO

Tracking the drive

to carbon zero Freight Carbon Zero’s information resources are available to give operators, manufacturers and all industry stakeholders an insight into the trends and developments driving the sector’s shift to carbon zero vehicles reight Carbon Zero is an information resource from the owners of Commercial Motor, Motor Transport, Transport News and Truck & Driver, dedicated to tracking the decarbonisation of the international commercial vehicle and road freight sector. Written by a team of leading industry subject matter experts, Freight Carbon Zero produces a weekly information newsletter read by more than 16,000 recipients.

The newsletter is complemented by an in-depth digital resource that contains exclusive interviews with prominent industry figures and insights into the trends and developments driving the sector’s shift to carbon zero vehicles.

The Freight Carbon Zero Vehicle Index is a unique resource tracking the technical developments of all the carbon zero vehicles available on

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14 MOTOR TRANSPORT DECARBONISATION SUMMIT

the market, as well as some preparing for launch.

We trawl the manufacturers’ specification sheets from around the globe and have built a unique dataset to keep you informed of the latest developments. You’ll have access to vehicle make and model information, power and torque outputs, whether the vehicle is battery or hydrogen powered, as well as available range, charge time and tank capacity of the vehicles.

Freight Carbon Zero is read by a global audience of industry stakeholders including fleet owners, manufacturers, energy and infrastructure organisations and suppliers, all keen to understand how the freight sector is transitioning to a carbon-free operating environment. ■ Register at Freight Carbon Zero to receive the weekly newsletter: freightcarbonzero.com

Reimagining

)È-!5 At bp Fleet Solutions, we are here to support your business on its journey towards decarbonisation.

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