Lloyd’s Register’s Risk Management Consulting (RMC) team in Norway has signed three (3) exclusive frame agreements to help companies in the region achieve sustainable approaches to cut pollution from greenhouse gas emissions across its transportation sector.

Emission-free grocery deliveries with ASKO

Norway's largest grocery retail logistics company, ASKO, is using ‘zero emission’ expertise from Lloyd’s Register in an effort to achieve 100% zero emissions in its transportation of goods and services, the company has ordered a number of heavy good vehicles using the fuel-cell electric transmission and power-train for medium distance grocery transportation in mid-Norway.

Jorn A. Endresen from ASKO MIDT – NORGE AS, says: “We want to run facilities and systems that support the transport needs of tomorrow and that help us achieve our ‘zero emission’ goals so we are looking at ways of operating that will better our high level of service and reliability that customers of ASKO currently enjoy, but knowing we are achieving our emission aims is critical to our business model. Thanks to Lloyd’s Register we are using their technical expertise to help us undergo the most rigorous of sustainability challenges we have ever undertaken. We are confident that their risk analysis approach and their local knowledge and understanding of environmental challenges, will help us achieve cleaner transport.”

ASKO is establishing a hydrogen production facility based on solar cell powered electrolysers and re-fuelling station for vehicles. The contract will see Lloyd’s Register conduct the risk analysis for land use planning requirements on behalf of NEL, which delivers the hydrogen systems and ASKO as operator.

Expertise provided to Uno-X-Hydrogen

Lloyd’s Register is working with Uno-X Hydrogen in the delivery of risk analyses (QRA) for its H2 re-fuelling station rollout programme, running until 2020. Uno-X Hydrogen is a joint venture between NEL, Praxair and Uno-X Energy.

The initial phase of the programme involves building twenty (20) hydrogen stations across Norway, a region where the Lloyd’s Register RMC team has already received the first three (3) frame agreement call-offs for greenfield road vehicle re-fuelling stations to be installed in the Oslo and Bergen area.

With the sales of fuel-cell driven vehicles (FCEVs) increasing as confidence in new transport technology and concerns for the environment helps strengthen consumer demand for cleaner transportation, the requirement for more re-fuelling stations beyond the twenty (20) already planned is under discussion, to ensure a sustainable approach is provided for the increasing number of consumers, and businesses, wanting to use every-day ‘emission-free’ transportation. Uno-X Hydrogen has a second-phase expansion plan after 2020, where hydrogen stations can either be produced on site by electrolysis or delivered in high-pressure H2 cylinders/vessels.

Leading Norway’s clean energy debate in the Mobility Zero Emission Energy Systems initiative

Lloyd’s Register’s insight in to sustainability is being used in the Mobility Zero Emission Energy Systems (MoZEES) initiative, led by the Norwegian research institute, IFE. MoZEES' main objective is "to be a Center for Environment-friendly Energy Research (FME)” and has a game-changing programme designed to look at how best to develop new battery and hydrogen materials, components, and technologies for existing and future transport applications on road, rail, and sea.

A two-day meeting of forty (40) stakeholders involved in this vast research programme was held recently, and included Norway's Minister of Transportation. Lloyd’s Register will contribute to the programme by providing risk studies on hydrogen safety for marine transportation.

Therese Lyngstøl Baas, Operations Manager – Risk Management Services at Lloyd’s Register, says: "There are a number of zero emission transportation initiatives under way and we are very pleased to be operating in this area. Our participation in the MoZEES work in particular, is a really interesting one and we are confident our expertise will support companies involved in the programme towards achieving a cleaner, sustainable transportation approach for their own business model as well as the wider ‘clean-drive’ transportation initiatives across Norway.”

Increasing the low carbon footprint across Europe

The concept behind the Norwegian low carbon transport model of the ‘green fleet’ combined with Lloyd’s Register’s ‘zero emission’ technical insight is transferable to other cities, organisations and countries. In Europe, transportation is responsible for a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions. And while Europe’s industrial emissions have fallen by 38% since 1990, those in the transportation sector – including aviation – have increased by 9%.

The combination of rapid technological advances in clean, sustainable power transport systems and low carbon expertise from Lloyd’s Register, shows that this time there’s more to the prediction of a low carbon future than industry optimism – as highlighted in the earlier this year in the Technology Radar Low Carbon 2017 report. Norway is the clear clean transport pacesetter in Europe, which now has about 500,000 electric vehicles. China leads the world in electric vehicle usage, with about 600,000 all-electric vehicles on its roads and an ambitious plan to deploy 5m EVs by 2020.

“The trailblazing achievements of the Norwegians are just one reason why experts believe the next few years are crucial for the breakout of ‘zero emission’ mobility in Europe and beyond,” highlights Lyngstøl Baas.