How haulage and aviation are innovating to fuel emissions reductions

While much of the focus in the climate action debate has been on the electrification of home heating and personal transport, the commercial transport and aviation sectors are big greenhouse gas emitters and face real challenges when it comes to meeting their decarbonisation targets.

In 2018 the overall transport sector in Ireland emitted 12 million tonnes of CO2; it must reduce that to between six and seven million tonnes by 2030. Ireland’s fleet of HGVs stood at about 136,000 vehicles in 2020 and they accounted for 15 per cent of transport energy. That makes haulage the biggest transport contributor to Ireland’s CO2 emissions, accounting for 1.8 million tonnes that year.

Ireland’s 10-year strategy for the haulage sector has set targets of a 15 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2025 and 30 per cent by 2030, based on average emissions in the period from July 2019 to June 2020.

Aviation faces an even greater challenge. According to the latest estimates, the industry is responsible for around 3 per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, making it one of the world’s single biggest emitters. The global aviation sector has set a goal of being carbon neutral by 2050 – no easy task in a notoriously hard to abate business.

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In both cases, new technologies in terms of more efficient engines and vehicle design will play a role. But this will only go so far. Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is seen as providing a significant element of the solution for the airlines.

SAF can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 80 per cent and is a viable alternative to traditional jet kerosene, having the same energy density while not requiring any significant modifications to aircraft engines. At present aircraft can fly with a fuel blend containing 50 per cent SAF. However, it costs between three and five times more than kerosene and production on the scale to make a real difference to aviation emissions is some way off.

There is a more immediate solution available to the haulage sector in the form of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), a plant-based, premium-quality fuel made from fossil-free, certified and sustainable raw materials. Unlike first-generation biofuels, which are made from crops such as rapeseed and soy, HVO is a second-generation biofuel, which means it is made from pre-existing bio-waste products, primarily using cooking and vegetable oil from food industry waste. Manufactured from 100 per cent renewable and sustainable waste, it is a paraffinic drop-in fuel designed as a direct replacement for diesel.

Certa introduced HVO to the Irish market in May 2022 and has seen a strong response to the new fuel from the commercial transport sector.

“HVO is a straight drop-in replacement for diesel, making it one of the fastest routes to reducing carbon emissions for many businesses, offering up to 90 per cent reductions in emissions without any retrofitting or modifications to vehicles and machinery,” says Orla Stevens, commercial director with Certa Ireland. “You can blend HVO directly with diesel so there is also no need to drain or empty tanks in order to switch.”

That strong response has seen Certa build up an impressive customer list for its HVO offering. “We are supporting key Irish businesses with their decarbonisation journey,” says Stevens. “Household names such as Sisk, Amazon, Dublin Airport and Dublin Port have all made the switch to HVO in the past 12 months, while many of Ireland’s largest events are also now fuelled with HVO. These include the National Ploughing Championships, Electric Picnic and the Irish Open golf championship, among others.”

HVO is also playing a role in Certa’s own decarbonisation journey. “We are an energy solutions business and we want to be working with our customers to bring lower-carbon energy solutions to meet the targets our Government has set,” Stevens points out. “We are very committed to reducing carbon emissions not only with our customers but within our own operations, and we have transitioned our entire fleet of over 100 trucks to HVO. This shows that we believe in this product and it will put us in advance of our own internal target of reducing emissions by 50 per cent by 2030.”

The reduction is quite dramatic. “The emissions from 12 of our vehicles on HVO are the same as just one vehicle using regular diesel.”

The company has also begun rolling out HVO at the pump. “Our Lee Tunnel site in Cork was the first to get a dedicated HVO pump. Our Liffey Valley site, opening soon, will also have HVO at the pump and we intend to roll this out to more sites over the coming 12 months. This will give diesel road users the option of choosing a lower-carbon fuel alternative.”