"Green" power for cleaner trucking

If all of the UK articulated truck fleet were equipped with a patented UK dual-fuel system, the CO2 emission savings would amount to 3.5 million tonnes a year, about 2% of the country's total output, according to the Clean Air Power company.

Clean Air Power has perfected a means of using natural gas in diesel engines to reduce harmful emissions, CO2 and running costs. As a result, truck makers and operators in many countries are showing "strong interest" in the development.

Since 1991, the company has installed its Dual-Fuel system in more than 1600 trucks across the globe and has fitting and service centres in northern England, San Diego, California and Melbourne.

The latest development is the opening in January 2007 of a European research and development (R&D) centre in Leyland where a workforce of 30 will be dedicated to further advancing the CAP technology in association with truck manufacturers and operators.

The chief executive of Clean Air Power, John Pettitt, believes the system is one of the only tried and tested "green" engine options available for the global heavy truck industry.

"We actually have a system that is already available and reducing a truck's impact on the environment. The Leyland centre, which can work on eight trucks at a time, has already completed installations for UK and Italian operators and we have had strong interest from carbon-conscious companies across Europe," he said.

The Dual-Fuel system was designed to be fitted to new vehicles, but last year the firm launched a generic, retrofit system called Genesis for sale directly to fleet operators rather than truck manufacturers and for use in most heavy trucks.