Birmingham Airport to expand use of HVO following ground vehicle trials
Birmingham Airport has been trialling the use of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as a sustainable alternative to diesel in 32 grounds vehicles and now plans to expand use across its site.
image: Birmingham Airport
Produced entirely from renewable waste materials, HVO is a diesel-like biofuel that significantly limits excessive air pollution and reduces carbon emissions by around 90%. Several other UK airports have adopted HVO as a sustainable alternative to diesel due to its significant environmental advantages.
With growing HVO infrastructure in Birmingham, such as the new HVO bunker, claimed to be the UK’s first dedicated HVO-only bunker, operated by Certas Energy at the nearby Tyseley Energy Park, the airport has a viable source of HVO from local commercial fuel suppliers.
Commenting on the trial of HVO at the airport, Tom Denton, Head of Sustainability, said, “Since our initial net zero pledge in 2019, we’ve been committed to exploring and implementing a variety of innovative solutions to reduce our carbon emissions and overall environmental impact. HVO is a proven and effective alternative to diesel and this trial of bio-fuel in select onsite grounds vehicles is our next step in proactively tackling our operational carbon footprint.”
James Gordon, Head of Airfield Infrastructure, said, “The success of the trial is a significant milestone in decarbonising our airfield operations. Following this limited trial, we will be looking to expand the use of HVO to other vehicles onsite to further reduce our emissions alongside the delivery of other renewable energy transition projects across the airfield.”
The HVO trial comes following ongoing work at the airport to fully decarbonise operations and utilise renewable energy sources including the development of a £10m airside solar farm which can power 100% of the terminal during peak conditions.
The airport also installed a waste management mobile segregation unit last year, which separates, washes, compacts, bales, weighs and electronically tags main terminal waste — which has resulted in higher recycling rates and better waste-data insights.