Huntingdonshire partners with Cambridgeshire police, fire departments for renewable diesel trial in England

Photo: Huntingdonshire District Council

The Huntingdonshire District Council in England announced April 25 that it has teamed up with the Cambridgeshire police and fire departments to conduct a trial using hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), also known as renewable diesel.

HVO, sourced from renewable vegetable oils, is fully compatible with standard diesel engines without any adjustments needed.

By adopting HVO instead of traditional diesel, the trial aims to achieve up to a 90 percent reduction in CO2 emissions, significantly advancing the council's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2040.

A renewable diesel fueling station has been established at HDC’s depot, granting access to Cambridgeshire police vehicles and fire trucks to facilitate the trial with various vehicle types.

“It is great to see HDC leading and facilitating this HVO trial,” said Andrew Rogan, the operations manager for HDC. “Collaborating with other authorities to utilize HVO through sharing our facilities presents a valuable opportunity to significantly reduce CO2 emissions across the district. This trial marks a significant step towards the council’s goal of being carbon neutral by 2040.”

Jamie Williams, a sergeant with the Cambridgeshire constabulary, added, “I’m delighted to be working with our partners at HDC and Cambridgeshire Fire on this very important project. The environmental advantages have been clearly demonstrated and our participation allows us to contribute to a wider reduction in CO2 emissions produced by the emergency services. This fuel alternative allows us to utilize current resources with no impact on our ability to respond to our communities across Cambridgeshire. The project also allows us to strengthen and build upon existing relationships with our local authority and emergency-service colleagues.”

Wayne Swales, the assistant director of Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue, said, “We are pleased to be working with Huntingdonshire District Council on trialing hydrotreated vegetable oil fuel in our fire engines. One of our key commitments in our recently launched community risk-management plan is to work towards reducing our carbon footprint. This trial, along with a further trial we are doing in the Peterborough area, is really helping with this. The crews at Huntingdon have been receptive to using the fuel. Not only has this significantly reduced the emissions generated from standard diesel, but there have also been no issues with performance of the fire engines. We hope to look at further steps following the trial to introduce the fuel to more of our vehicles.”

The trial is set to run for a few more weeks, and to date the HVO used by HDC, police and fire-service vehicles has already reduced the carbon footprint of the combined services by 72 metric tons of CO2 compared to standard diesel.