Hydrogen can mitigate the financial impact of red diesel reform
Specialising in alternative power drivers, Business Development Manager for Prior Power Solutions, Paul Dekker Kleyn explains how businesses can lessen the financial impact of the impending changes to red diesel, whilst simultaneously reducing carbon emissions.
“Red diesel is a term known, at least in part, to most. To non-users, it’s probably thought of as a rebated fuel merely used by farmers,” begins Paul.
“In fact, red diesel has been used for decades by many wide-ranging industries including construction, mining, quarrying, oil and gas extraction, leisure, airport and port operations for off-road machinery and vehicles in addition to backup power generation.
“It accounts for around 15% of all diesel used in the UK and its use accounts for 14 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year1.”
Red diesel is the same as regular diesel, with a red dye added to prevent it being used by non-exempt applications – particularly road users.
“The introduction of red dye and chemical markers to distinguish between rebated and non-rebated diesel was brought in in 1961, although a reduced rate for ‘off-road’ vehicles had been used since 19352. Over the years, the list of exempt vehicles and applications has been extended, however the reform due to come in next month is the biggest shake up in its history,” continues Paul.
“But from 1 April, red diesel will not be available to many who have benefited from it over the last nine decades and with the cost of diesel at record levels, the difference to businesses and their bottom line will be hugely costly at best, detrimental at worst.”
But Paul gives some hope to businesses,
There is an option, on the market right now, to reduce the fuel consumption of diesel engines and diesel generators by up to 14%.
“Retrofittable to existing and new diesel engines, the Hydrogen-Diesel Introduction System effectively converts a standard combustion engine into a dual fuel engine. It is a stand-alone system that produces hydrogen gas from water by electrolysis, which is injected directly into the engine reducing fuel consumption as well as harmful emissions.”
While sceptics might be nervous about hydrogen technology, Paul explains that this system is completely safe.
“Crucially, no hydrogen is stored.
“You may have seen pictures of hydrogen-powered construction vehicles with big ominous warning triangles, and large storage tanks. Whilst there is nothing to suggest hydrogen fuel vehicles are in any way dangerous, this is completely different technology,” says Paul.
Paul gives this scenario:
Take a genset application with a 15.2 litre engine, running a conservative 200 hours a month.
“If that engine has been powering a rebated application, running on red diesel at say 69p/litre, that’s some £97,704 fuel each year.
“Now, if that engine can no longer run on red diesel from 1st April, and here’s where it’s tricky as every time I make this calculation the price of diesel rockets, but let’s stay conservative and optimistic of the future and work on £1.27/litre, the annual fuel cost will be, in the same scenario, £179,832.
“Add a Hydrogen-Diesel Introduction System, the capital cost of which amortised over 5 years, the small amount of water required, annual service and cell replacement after 8,000-10,000 hours, the system on that one engine will save a conservative £10,685 of fuel each year.
“And that’s based on a modest 10% fuel savings.
Many operators with the latest Hydrogen-Diesel Introduction System technology are reporting even greater yearly return on fuel savings than this.
“The savings become even more impressive when you look at installing the unit on a fleet of diesel generators” Paul is keen to emphasize.”
When a business-changing price hike comes in, it can be hard to prioritise the environment. The Hydrogen-Diesel Introduction System also dramatically reduces greenhouse gases. Independent testing has proven up to 80% less diesel particulate matter, 22% less nitrous oxides, 25% less carbon monoxide and 8% less carbon dioxide.
“Again, using our example above, a single Hydrogen-Diesel Introduction System unit would save 37 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year (equivalent to 10,064 kg of carbon),” explains Paul.
“And we haven’t even mentioned yet the increase in power and lower operating costs due to reduced soot content in engine oil” he goes on.
Whilst the development of hydrogen-powered vehicles is exciting, and by no disagreement one of the ways forward to achieving net zero, there are thousands, hundreds of thousands even of diesel engines and generators operating daily. To replace all of these with hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines would take many, many years. However, the Hydrogen-Diesel Introduction System, whilst not omitting diesel completely, does provide a very cost effective and realistic option in the interim for reducing diesel consumption and decreasing environmental footprint.
Paul concludes, “Even though red diesel remains available to a number of industries, with the price of diesel rising daily, mounting concern about security and ethics of supply, why wouldn’t you want to look at mitigating these risks through a simple, dual fuel solution.”
References:
1www.gov.uk
2www.nationwidefuels.co.uk