Class 66 dual fuel project secures funding

GOVERNMENT funding of almost £400,000 has been secured to part-fund a project to re-engineer a Class 66 locomotive, making it capable of operating on a combination of diesel, biogas and hydrogen.

Working in partnership with Freightliner, which has over

100 Class 66 locomotives in operation across the UK, Clean Air Power will use precision injection technology on the test locomotive, conversion of which will take around nine months to complete at Freightliner’s Midland Road depot in Leeds. Emissions testing will be carried out in consultation with the Rail Safety Standards Board and transport technical analysts Carrickarory.

Also supported by Network Rail, Tarmac, Flogas and the University of Birmingham, the project is one of 30 winners in the latest round of the First of a Kind (FOAK) competition (see also Headline News) financed by the Department for Transport in partnership with Innovate UK. FOAK aims to make the railways more environmentally friendly.

Clean Air Power managing director Dan Skelton said: “Our solution offers a route to viable, long-term decarbonisation and its associated cost benefits, which will be practical to implement and scale. We have successfully worked alongside the likes of Volvo, Mercedes, DHL, Caterpillar and Perkins previously, and are looking forward to transferring our know-how and expertise to this new and exciting market.”

Freightliner UK Rail managing director Tim Shakerley commented: “As the largest freight operator of electric traction, we already have a number of environmentally motivated initiatives underway and are delighted to be working with Clean Air Power and other partners on this additional government-funded project. With decarbonisation high on the agenda, these initiatives will further support the government’s pledge to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.”