red diesel replacement projects

The government has announced £32.5 million funding for industrial industries, such as construction, mining and quarrying, to move away from using red diesel, also known as gas oil, which is a type of fossil fuel commonly used for off-road, heavy-duty vehicles and machinery, such as bulldozers and cranes.

The funding is being made available through the second phase of the Red Diesel Replacement Competition, which supports projects that seek to develop red diesel alternatives. The £32.5 million package will support three to five demonstration projects that participated in Phase 1 of the programme.

This next phase of funding will support industry to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, while also helping to cut industry emissions and energy costs, supporting the UK’s commitment to transition away from red diesel to help meet its climate change and air quality targets.

The funding follows £6.7 million funding provided to 17 winners under Phase 1 of the competition, in areas covering electrification, e-fuels and green hydrogen, as well as technologies that capture and store energy which would ordinarily be wasted from a vehicle or machine.

Examples of previous winners from Phase 1 included MAHLE Powertrain in Northampton, who will be working in partnership with The University of Nottingham and Clean Air Power. They will build two prototype engines capable of running on ammonia and hydrogen, with the aim of providing a pathway for the sustainable use of heavy-duty engines. They received £425,072.

CATAGEN in Belfast received £787,700 for two projects; an e-fuel generator to develop e-diesel, and a novel hydrogen compressor.

ULEMCo in Liverpool, working with Skanska and Building Research Establishment (BRE), received £418,613 to develop and deploy a H2ICED® combustion engine for onsite construction equipment, a world first in converting a piling machine (used in the construction industry) to run on hydrogen fuel.

Another recipient was Steamology Motion in Salisbury, who received £364,717 to build a prototype demonstrator of their high power, zero-emission steam turbine drivetrain, proving a viable red diesel engine replacement technology.

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Newcastle and Gateshead Clean Air Zone now live

The new Clean Air Zone in Newcastle and Gateshead has now come into effect, having launched on Monday 30 January. Non-compliant taxis, buses, coaches and HGVs will face charges to drive into the zone. Private cars are not affected by the Clean Air Zone and do not have to pay any charges. Drivers of non-compliant vehicles who enter the Clean Air Zone will not be sent a notification reminding them to pay. Instead, drivers are asked to check if their vehicle is affected and if they are required to pay to do so online or over the telephone. Payments can be made any time from six days before a journey, on the day of travel or by 11:59pm on the sixth day after driving in the zone. If a charge is not paid drivers may receive a penalty charge notice (PCN).

Affected drivers are encouraged to also be aware of whether their journey takes them within the Clean Air Zone boundary so that they know whether they need to pay. The zone covers most of Newcastle city centre as well as routes across the Tyne, Swing, High Level and Redheugh bridges. Road signs with the Clean Air logo mark all the entrances to the CAZ and further signs are in place in all directions, to warn drivers on approaching routes. There is also an interactive map of the Clean Air Zone available online so that people can check before they travel.

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Quarter of government central fleet now ultra-low emission

The government has hit its target to switch over a quarter of its central fleet cars to ultralow emission vehicles (ULEV).

As set out in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Greening government commitments in 2021 to 2025, the government was required to transition a minimum of a quarter of its car fleet to ultralow emission vehicles by the end of 2022. As of the latest data from September, 25.5 per cent of all central government cars were ultra-low emission vehicles, reaching the target three months ahead of schedule.

Technology and Decarbonisation Minister Jesse Norman said: “As the UK moves

MOBILITY towards a cleaner transport network, the government is doing its part, with over 25 per cent of its central car fleet being battery-powered three months earlier than planned.

“It’s critical that progress in decarbonising fleets is matched elsewhere. We will continue to forge ahead, to complete the switch by 2027 and help make the UK a world leader in decarbonisation.”

The target is just a first milestone as government looks to decarbonise the entirety of its central car and van fleet to zero emission vehicles by 2027.

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Hertz to make 25,000 EVs available to Uber drivers in Europe

Hertz and Uber have announced a European expansion to their successful North American partnership, where Hertz will make up to 25,000 electric vehicles (EVs) available to Uber drivers in European capital cities by 2025.

The partnership in North America has already benefited tens of thousands of drivers on the Uber platform. To date, nearly 50,000 drivers have rented a Tesla through this programme, completing more than 24 million fully-electric trips and over 260 million electric miles.

The European expansion of the partnership will begin in Hertz Europe’s London base in January 2023 and aims to expand to other European capitals, such as Paris and Amsterdam, throughout the year and beyond.

Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO, said: “As the largest mobility platform in the world, we know that our impact goes beyond our technology. Climate change is the most urgent global challenge which we must all tackle together – now is the time to accelerate. Expanding our partnership with Hertz into Europe will significantly boost our transition to zero-emissions, helping drivers reduce running costs and cleaning up urban transport. We aim to become a fully electric platform across Europe by 2030.”

Zemo Partnership’s Andy Eastlake

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Welcome a new government department with a ‘Z for Zero’ www.zemo.org.uk

As I write, news is breaking of the Prime Minister’s reorganisation of the government department formerly known as BEIS. I know some will welcome this as they never quite worked out how to pronounce the acronym, but with the new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero I think I’ll wait for an official steer rather than speculating on ‘DESNZ’.

And whilst tumult in government is rarely helpful in the short term, the appearance of ‘Net Zero’ in the new department’s name sends a clear and compelling message about direction. Couple that with the integration of energy which is the vital sector link (who said DECC?) and a Secretary of State only recently departed from transport, there should be greater policy alignment to support the decarbonisation agenda, which is encouraging.

Perhaps it’s the other key piece of news in the headlines this week that also illustrates the need for change. Britishvolt, the UK battery startup, is to be bought by an Australian firm after a very public and depressing fall into administration just a few weeks ago. It led to calls for a different kind of industrial strategy and to criticism of BEIS (despite having ‘industrial strategy’ in its name) for not providing sufficient support. Giving a whole departmental responsibility to Science, Innovation and Technology separate from the new Business and Trade Department may enable clearer segregation of these technology levels and production challenges.

It’s crucial that the UK develops the industrial capability to retain and support our automotive sector. Indeed, a decade ago, the Automotive Council presented the consensus view of five strategic technologies for UK automotive, publishing ‘roadmaps’ with ‘energy storage and management’ being an important one. Not all the predictions made then have turned out quite as forecast (it’s an interesting read) but battery research and development has indeed been a UK strength. But now, with demand burgeoning for batteries from every sector of automotive (from mopeds to trucks), the urgent need for batteries (and indeed power electronics motors and drives) must focus our industrial manufacturing minds as sharply as our research and innovation ones have been.

So, with three new departments and an alphabet soup of letters and acronyms, ES&NZ, SI&T, B&T and ES&NZ, we have an ecosystem to support net zero transport from technology and innovation to business and energy. But in the current set-up, there’s one crucial letter missing from the Cabinet table! Who will represent ‘M’ for ‘Manufacturing’.

This week also sees the announcement of the Greenfleet GF100 for 2023. Unfortunately I’m not able to be there this year but will try to keep up with the countdown from my holiday travels!

Good luck to all and thank you to all those on the final list for the great work and enthusiasm you bring to this sector. It’s a celebration of people who make things happen by working together, which is what Partnership (and Zemo) are all about.