Clean Air Power Ltd. (Clean Air) has received an order from Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd. (Sainsbury’s) for five Genesis Dual Fuel installations. Sainsbury's began a trial of Clean Air's technology in August 2007 and in August 2008 began to operate one of its Mercedes-Benz Axor Euro 3 vehicles fitted with Genesis Dual-Fuel combustion technology. The vehicle runs daily to Sainsbury's new green store in Dartmouth, Devon from the Sainsbury Emerald Park depot near Bristol.
This early order demonstrates Sainsbury’s ongoing commitment to using the company’s technology to reduce its emissions from road transport.
The Dartmouth vehicle and the others which Sainsbury’s have ordered will be fuelled using a combination of diesel and Biogas, 100% renewable methane produced from a landfill site and cleaned before use. The landfill site is owned and operated by Gasrec Ltd.
Sainsbury’s have named this initiative ‘Running on Rubbish’ and are keen to increase their experience of operating Dual-Fuel vehicles with a view to expanding the use of biogas within their fleet in the future. Reducing emissions from heavy goods vehicles is very challenging for operators and Sainsbury’s will reduce CO2 emissions from these vehicles by around 30%.
The company pioneered the move towards using natural gas (methane) as a fuel for heavy goods vehicles by developing patented technologies that enable an existing diesel engine to operate on a combination of diesel and methane, with minimal change required to the base engine.
This order is for the company’s Genesis system which is retrofitted to operators’ existing vehicles. Around 50% of the diesel used can be substituted by methane, whereas an interfaced product will deliver a substitution rate of up to 90%. The company has announced the signature of a letter of intent with Volvo, the largest truck engine manufacturer in the world, to develop an interfaced product. Whilst running in Dual-Fuel™ mode, the diesel engine performance and efficiency are maintained whilst delivering significant fuel cost savings, along with a marked reduction in carbon emissions.
Commenting on the order, John Pettitt, chief executive officer of Clean Air Power, said: “We are delighted to receive this order as it represents the next stage in our relationship with Sainsbury’s. We are pleased that such a respected and well known group has been impressed with the trial of our technology over the past few years and we hope that this order will lead to further orders in the future with our new products. This order signifies another step forward for the Company following the positive progress already announced this year, and further endorses the credibility of our technology.”
Gary King, Sainsbury’s Logistics Operations support manager stated that: “Sainsbury’s are keen to continue the evaluation of this product in order to gain a better understanding of the use of this type of fuel within our operation. The purchasing of the Genesis units demonstrates our continued commitment of respecting the environment by seeking alternative sustainable fuels.”
Clean Air is a UK-based developer and provider of Dual-Fuel combustion technology for heavy duty diesel engines.