Engineering business Keltbray has cut its red diesel demand by 80% — swapping it out for greener Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO). It says its aim is to get rid of dependency on red diesel across all projects by the end of the year.
Its decision to make a switch came from a successful trial using HVO fuel supplied by hire and services provider Speedy, and analysis on two identical Caterpillar 25 tonne machines, one on standard red EN590 diesel and one on HVO fuel.
Keltbray announced it was the first major construction firm to trial HVO fuel earlier this year. Before the announcement, the fuel was yet to enter Keltbray’s excavator fleet and was being trialled to assess whether it could reduce the impact from construction plant operations.
Following analysis of the results and verification by Imperial College London (UCL), the local air quality benefits calculated saw an 8% reduction in CO2 when testing newer machines. There was a 20% reduction in CO2 when Keltbray carried out tests on older machines.
Keltbray is the first organisation to gain third party results of the local air quality benefits by working with Imperial College London (UCL).
To further reduce the carbon emissions, the fuel is stored on site in bowsers with telematics which communicate with the supplier, Speedy, to indicate when the tanks need topping up. This in turn reduces the frequency of fuel deliveries to site.
Kiro Tamer, head of environmental sustainability at Keltbray, said, “Keltbray has committed to net-zero by 2040 but until hydrogen and other zero emissions technologies mature, HVO can play a key role to assist the industry reducing reliance on fossil fuels. The great thing about HVO is that it can help reduce CO2 emissions from the newer machines by almost 10% without the need for any modification, and its overall embodied and reporting carbon emission is over 90% less than ordinary diesel.”
Mike Derome, head of fuel at Speedy, said, “We’re delighted that our trial with Keltbray was successful and the business is now rolling out HVO fuel to the entirety of its operations. Speedy’s standard low emission fuel is the only HVO fuel approved for use in Speedy equipment. For every 350 litres of HVO fuel used, 1 tonne of CO2 is saved versus fossil fuel so we’re pleased to see the trial results yielded significant reductions in CO2.”
