Calor Gas welcomes recognition of LPG to tackle poor air quality in UK cities

Clean Air Zones will be introduced in five cities across the UK, including Leeds, Birmingham, Derby, Southampton and Nottingham aimed at reducing emissions from taxis, vans and HGVs by 2020.

The plan, which is to be submitted to the European Commission by DEFRA, recognises the potential of LPG to help bring down harmful emissions. Automotive LPG is cleaner than traditional transport fuels. As part of our response to the consultation, Autogas Ltd converted a TX4 diesel taxi to run on LPG to demonstrate the emissions saving potential of LPG. The converted taxi delivers a reduction in NOx of 80%, PM of 99% and CO2 of 7% meeting Euro 6 standards under real world testing. Furthermore, LPG provides a proven solution to reducing emissions from taxis, vans and HGVs quickly and at no expense to the tax payer as the infrastructure is already in place and can be expanded by the industry.

Paul Blacklock, Head of Strategy and Corporate Affairs at Calor said: “We are very pleased that the government recognises the potential of LPG autogas to help reduce harmful emissions such as NOx and CO2 from taxis, vans and HGVs. The Secretary of State mentioned the Birmingham LPG taxi pathfinding project in her statement to the House of Commons today. This project demonstrates the potential of converting existing black cabs from diesel to LPG autogas, providing a solution for those cities that will have to enact Clean Air Zones to tackle poor air quality in their areas.”

Every large transit van in the UK is run on diesel, contributing substantially to harmful transport emissions. However, there currently appears to be no solution available to large transit van drivers, with the cost and practicalities of purchasing a cleaner alternative. Significant potential exists to use LPG in vans, light commercial vehicles and HGVs which could have a demonstrable impact on urban air quality as there are few present low emission options for the white van driver. 

Now that LPG’s potential is clearly recognised by Government, more can be done to help incentivise commercial vehicle drivers to use the fuel and incentivise vehicle manufacturers to make production LPG vehicles available in the UK market.

Blacklock concludes “Modest policy interventions to ensure LPG’s potential can be utilised should be seriously considered by Government. We are calling on the Chancellor to remove the fuel duty escalator on LPG at the March 2016 Budget as this would send a positive signal to vehicle manufactures, fleet managers and individual owners, promoting the uptake of conversions and the availability of new LPG production vehicles.”