East Midlands Airport trials bus on green fuel
Elaine Brass
10th November 2009
In what it is claiming to be a world first, East Midlands Airport is conducting a six month trial to run an airport passenger transfer bus on liquid biomethane (LBM), a carbon neutral fuel.
LBM is produced by the decomposition of biomass in landfill or as an industrial by product, such as in food manufacturing or retail. The production of LBM takes the potentially environmentally damaging greenhouse gases and converts them into an environmentally friendly fuel, which can then be used instead of compressed natural gas and liquified natural gas.
East Midlands Airport is running the trial with Gasrec, the UK’s first commercial producer of LBM, as part of a series of measures to become carbon neutral.
As well as a reduction in CO2 emissions and a reduction in costs, the airport expects the benefits of LBM to include significant improvements to air quality. If the trial goes well, it will consider increasing the number of vehicles using LBM.
Neil Robinson, director of Sustainability, East Midlands Airport, said: “We have made significant efforts in recent years to mitigate the environmental impacts of our operations and we are really proud to be launching another airport first.”
East Midland’s Airport was the first in the UK to propose plans for four wind turbines to generate 10 per cent of the airport’s electricity supply, which will be installed in the coming months. Meanwhile the airport has invested in other, alternative fuels for on site vehicles including bio-diesel (chip fat) and electric.
It says it is already half way towards its 2012 carbon neutrality goal through a series of environmental projects across operations that it has direct control, namely ground support vehicles and buildings.
“In addition to trialing alternative fuel use on the airport site, we have recently made further positive steps towards achieving our goal of carbon neutrality and significantly reducing the carbon emissions from our operation. These steps include drawing up plans for new green energy and technology, continually working to drive down noise and excessive fuel use through working with our airline partners and improving green transport options for passengers and staff,” said Robinson.