Dustcarts in Reading are collecting the rubbish quietly since vehicles powered by liquefied natural gas were introduced. Steve Banner reports.
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With all the focus on liquefied petro
leum gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas (CNG), the merits of liquefied natural gas (LNG) have been somewhat neglected. But not in Reading.
Reading Borough Council has added it LNG-powered Dennis Eagle refuse collection vehicles (RCVs) to its fleet. Grossing at 23 tonnes, and with three-man crews, the leased 6x2 rigids will cover 10,000 to 12,000 miles annually, and remain in service
for five years, says senior contracts manager, Phil McCorry.
"We've got nine operational, three more to come, and two spares," he says.
Powered by spark-ignition Cummins engines, most of the newcomers are on domestic binemptying work, with the occasional foray to a landfill site. Two of them are kept busy collecting trade waste.
Reading's RCVs were due for replacement, McCorry explains, and the council opted for the LNG trucks because it wants to reduce pollution and promote an environmentally friendly image, and also because of the running cost savings that can be achieved. "We reckon we're saving about o% on our fuel bill," he observes. That's a reduction of around £9,000 a year.
LNG was favoured because the tanks—which are rather like large, insulated flasks—are not much heavier than conventional diesel tanks. At minus IGo'C, however, the fuel is extremely cold, and precautions have to be taken when LNG vehicles are refuelled. It's wise to don goggles and gloves first.
"Gloves are especially impor
tant because the hose gets so cold," he observes.
Filling up takes around two to three minutes, says McCorry. The wagons have been supplied by The Leasing Croup, with fuel, maintenance and the installation of refuelling facilities all part of the deal. They're maintained at the borough's own depot.
Reliable
So far the RCVs have proved reliable—"we can't fault them," he remarks—and the quietness of the LNG engines has proved a distinct advantage when the bin men are trundling around Reading's residential streets.
You have to let the engines run for a minute first thing in the morning, though, to allow the computer system time to settle down," McGarry comments. If you don't, the computer picks up the wrong throttle setting, and you find you're running on half power.
But they don't suffer from a performance viewpoint otherwise, and we've suffered no trouble with the power take-off"
Part of Transco, the Readingbased lessor was able to take advantage of grants from the Government's Powershift programme to keep down the cost of acquiring the trucks. As a consequence, it was able to quote competitive leasing terms.
Powershift offers contributions from 25 to 75% of the premium an operator pays for a gas-powered truck over and above the cost of acquiring a diesel-fuelled one. The programme is funded by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions through the Energy Savings Trust.
LNG has all the environmental virtues of CNG. There are no particulates in the exhaust emissions, says Powershift, NOxnitrogen oxide emissions—are down 8o% when compared with diesel, while carbon dioxide emissions are down by 5%.
Edinburgh
Reading isn't the only local authority to head down the LNG route. Edinburgh City Council is running a Dennis Elite RCV plus four ERF RCVs—all at z6 tonnes—on the fuel, as well as an ERF 17-tonne skip-loader. Its LNG programme began in February 1998 and these vehicles, too, have been obtained through The Leasing Croup. They're remaining in service for seven years.
"Edinburgh has high pollution levels and may not meet national and European air quality standards in five years' time," explains Adam Kassyk, principal officer, corporate policy at the council. That's one sound reason for opting for gas, and the fact that there's not much ofa weight penalty to be paid swung the argument in LNG's favour.
Edinburgh's council has had no problems refuelling, and is impressed with the silent running that gas power affords. "There's a high level of operational satisfaction with the trucks," Kassyk states.
However, they've not been glitch-free. Troubles on some have centred on the engine control modules, resulting in misfiring, and it can take some time to diagnose where the fault is.
The authority reckons there's a 1% difference in leasing costs in an LNG RCV's favour compared with diesel. Leasing costs are of course calculated with residual values in mind, and it's a challenge to project what the secondhand value of a gas-powered dustcart is likely to be.
A further benefit is that the trucks qualify for a reduced rate of VED thanks to their low pollution levels.
Stop-start
The Edinburgh RCVs cover no more than 50 miles a day on stopstart work, and are back in the depot long before they need to refuel.
Just as well—LNG isn't sold from public forecourts, and CNG's availability is restricted too. British Gas only has 14 GNG gas stations countrywide.
• Petrol engines are far easier to convert to gas power than diesels, and some van makers—most notably Vauxhall—now have CNG and LPG light commercials based on petrol models readily available. It's usually possible for the driver to switch back to petrol if the gas runs low.
Diesels are far more difficult, and many diesel manufacturers—Cummins among them—have responded by building dedicated gas engines using a spark ignition system.
However, Alternative Fuel Systems of Canada has developed a package which allows engines to be run successfully on a mixture of diesel and CNG.
GREEN CREDENTIALS it LPG carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions are 50% those of petrol, with nitrogen oxide emissions at roughly 30%. The fuel contains almost no benzene, lead or sulphur.
The last Budget saw a 29% cut in duty on road fuel gases. That served to widen the price gulf between gaseous and other road fuels substantially, given the large tax increases imposed on diesel and petrol at the same time.
But how long will gas remain at the cutting edge of environmentally friendly transport? Come November, Westminster City Council aims to have a zeroemissions van powered by a hydrogen fuel cell in operation.
Powershift has stumped up half of the 232,000 cost of acquiring the 3.5-tonnor, which has been specially built by American manufacturer Coval.
"The UK must not be left behind when it comes to fuel cell vehicle development, and it's vitally important that we should encourage such projects," says a Powershift spokesman.
• The wider availability of LPG, plus the relative ease of converting petrol engines to run on it, is prompting interest from light commercial owners; and that includes those in the private sector.
Accy Gas—Accrington Bottled Gas—has been running two petrol Ford Transit 190 dropsides an LPG since last December, says managing director Les Brown. "it used to cost us more than £80 to go to Heathrow Airport and back, but LPG has reduced the cost to £41," he says.
'What's more, we've been able to stretch the ser vice interval from 6,000 to 10,000 miles, and the engines run much more cleanly," he continues. "Take the plugs out, and they look brand new."
Each Transit has been equipped with a 100-litre gas tank weighing around 50kg. "They've not suffered from a performance viewpoint, and they run more quietly too,' says Brown.
The conversions were carried out by LPG Auto Power of Burnley. "You're talking about £1,000 for that type of conversion, but you can reduce the bill to £700 if you opt for a smaller tank," he says.
"Our vehicles were more than 12 months old when the conversions were carried out, so unfortunately we didn't qualify for a Powershift grant," he adds.
As a supplier of bottled gas, Accy Gas felt 1111 that running the Transits would make a good advertisement for its services, and is pleased with the cost savings it has achieved.
"We do a bit of light haulage too—everything from shoes to sinks, with
a tuft-type body to protect the load—and we've now got a list of 300 LPG outlets around the country," Brown continues.
The drivers can switch back to petrol from LPG if they run short of gas, but that's seldom necessary. Accy Gas has its own 4,000-litre LPG bulk tanks, and sells the fuel to other vehicle operators.
'We usually get two calling in every day, and we get through 5,000 litres a month,' he says. Refuelling time isn't an issue, he adds.
As a consequence he gets a discount for bulk purchase, only paying 26p a litre for his LPG. "That compares with 35.4p a litre on the forecourt," he adds However, it should be borne in mind that you'll burn lb to 20% more LPG than petrol to cover a given distance. you'll pay 43p for a volume of CNG equivalent to a litre of petrol.
Edinburgh-based City Couriers is another convert to the gas gospel. Its fleet includes a LPG Transit with a 250-mile range on gas—"we never have to switch to petrol," says Adam Syme, who runs the firm—and It is achieving 200 miles on CNG with its Escort vans.
A number of private sector operators are also using LPG to power their HGVs.
MODS, Lane Group and Safeway have all run gaspowered trucks on dedicated contracts, as has been well-documented in previous issues of CM, with the restricted availability of CNG and LNG usually limiting their use to pre-determined routes.