Groundbreaking biofuel bus trial

Transport group Arriva is trialling B20 biodiesel for the firsttime on its buses.

Arriva is aiming to reduce total carbon emissions by around 14per cent by using Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) as a 20 per centblend.

The FAME will predominantly be a mixture of sustainable soyaproducts, along with used cooking oil and tallow.

The 75 buses in the innovative trial will run fromArriva’s Blyth Garage in Northumberland and carry around130,000 passengers every week. Minimal engineering changes will berequired to the fleet as part of the scheme.

Mark Bowd, Arriva’s director of technical services, said:“We know that public transport has a massive role to play inthe fight against global warming.

“This scheme not only shows that we take our environmentalresponsibility very seriously but it also reduces the carbonfootprint of our passengers, many of whom already choose the busrather than the car for this very reason.

“We will be asking the Government to review the taxarrangements to help the market make this fuel available at a moreeconomic price than is currently possible”

Arriva is already trialling the world’s first hybriddouble decker and piloting new technology which analyses drivingbehaviour to help substantially reduce exhaust emissions.

The B20 biodiesel has been produced by Teesside-based Petroplus.Iain Grime, the company’s business development manager, said:“This is the first time we have supplied B20 to a busoperator and we are confident that this will prove to be a verysuccessful partnership.”