Biogas as a Low-Carbon Transport Fuel Meeting

Biogas as a Low-Carbon Transport Fuel MeetingClean buses for clean public transport is a major theme of the CIVITAS Initiative. Norwich, as a lead partner in Civitas SMILE, has worked with bus operators to reduce emissions in the city via retrofitting of older buses to create cleaner exhaust systems and via the purchase of new buses. The Low Emission Zone in Castle Meadow, Norwich, was opened in July 2008. Buses not Euro III compliant are no longer allowed to enter the LEZ. The City of Norwich and Norfolk County Council wanted to proceed further to create bus and other vehicle fleets that can achieve big reductions in carbon dioxide emissions as well as reducing pollutant emissions still further.Other Civitas cities have trialled several low-carbon options for city bus fleets. Ethanol-fuelled buses have been running in Stockholm for many years while several cities have experience with natural-gas powered buses. There was still only one manufacturer of ethanol-fuelled buses, however, and little experience outside Stockholm while there is also little infrastructure in place for ethanol bus refuelling in the UK. However, several European cities are now using biomethane to power gas-fuelled vehicles including buses. Malmo, a partner in Civitas SMILE, has created a supply chain for biogas for it's gas-powered buses and other vehicles and Stockholm has recently ordered several hundred biogas compatible buses.Diesel hybrid buses may well become an attractive option for low-carbon, low-emission transport, but at present the experience is limited and the costs of new buses are high. However, there is increasing production of biogas from sewage and other wastes in the UK, increasing interest in the UK in the potential of biogas for transport use, and ambition in the UK also to enable insertion of biogas, once cleaned and compatible, into the natural gas grid. The first few UK gas-powered vehicles have started running on biogas this year, in 2008 using biogas obtained from a landfill site.Hence it seemed timely to take advantage of the experience in Civitas partner cities as well as in the UK to consider whether now is the moment to make the move to biogas-powered bus fleets and possibly to other biogas-powered vehicles as well - for example refuse collection vehicles. 2009 saw many local authorities placing new contracts for bus operations. If this opportunity to request low-carbon, low-emission options was not grasped, it could be many years before a similar opportunity arises again. An opportunity for low-carbon leadership will have been missed.For all these reasons, and working with the University of East Anglia at Norwich, the lead partner in the local Civitas measure on clean and renewable fuels, Norfolk organised a meeting on “Biogas as a Low-Carbon Transport Fuel” held in Norwich on November 21 as part of Civitas expoitation and dissemination activities.Local and national bus companies were represented as will be local authorities from across the East of England and beyond, and officials from the UK Government and low-carbon transport initiatives. The Norwich partners were keen that if a way forward for the introduction of biogas-powered bus fleets could be found, then the exploitation of this low-carbon fuel should be as wide as possible as rapidly as possible. Speakers from Malmo and Stockholm were invited, UK companies that have pioneered the use of gas and biogas for transport application made presentations, and UK businesses that are interested in using biogas in vehicle fleets or in the production and distribution of biogas were represented.This event was an important opportunity to begin work on an important initiative in low-carbon and low-emission transport in the UK. Norwich took leadership and is able to do so because of its participation in the Civitas initiative.Bruce Tofield, Low Carbon Innovation Centre, University of East Anglia, Norwich

Authors: Holding Graz Linien, Chris Mitchell

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