Transport volume is on the increase. At the same time tougher standards are being imposed on the transport industry worldwide to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In the European Union, a target of a 20 percent reduction in overall traffic emissions by 2020 (compared with the 1990 level) has been set. This is a challenging goal, but Scania wants to tighten up the demands even further. The company’s target is 50 percent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions per tonne-kilometre in Europe between 2000 and 2020.
Hasse Johansson.
“To achieve our environmental targets, we must use a combination of new and old measures,” says Group Vice President, Research and Development, Hasse Johansson.
He emphasises such well-known areas as improvements in engines and gearboxes, reduced air and rolling resistance, more efficient transport logistics, longer vehicles able to carry more cargo and trained drivers who achieve better fuel economy.
“The driver is one of the single most important factors,” Johansson says. “Driver training enables a haulage company to improve fuel economy by 10 to 15 percent. Many drivers have a great potential for increasing their professional know-how.”
Renewable fuels and hybrid technology are two additional aspects of Scania’s contribution to sustainable transport.
“There is no need to wait,” Johansson says. “The transition to renewable fuels can begin immediately. Our message is not only that it is possible to start now, but that we have already started. Today we are delivering our third generation of ethanol-powered buses to the Stockholm public transport system.”
Improved efficiency in the transport system is important to achieve sustainable transport.
Recently biofuels have criticized for raising food prices (wheat and corn), for destroying rain forests (palm oil) and for generating greenhouse gases in the production of the biofuel itself.
“Naturally these problems must be taken seriously, but the difficulties should not be exaggerated either,” Johansson says. “Given proper standards and intelligent policies, the right technology will be used, and wasteful methods will be eliminated. Of course, food production must enjoy priority, but most indications are that there is enough arable land for a great deal of fuel production as well.”
Which fuel will be dominant in the future is difficult to predict. Today national interests are trying to protect domestic crops and are using import tariffs to shut out other alternatives.
“The next 25 years will be highly fragmented,” Johansson says. “No specific biofuel will be dominant everywhere. Instead, local conditions will determine which fuel is used in a given market.”
“Our cutting-edge diesel engine technology is a very good point of departure,” he adds, “since a diesel engine can run on a variety of different biofuels. We like to recommend ethanol in this context, but we will also be building gas-powered vehicles using spark plug engines. Natural gas is interesting in countries with cheap gas supply, but is still a fossil fuel. Biogas is a better proposition, giving close to 100 percent fossil CO2 reduction, and it can be produced locally on a comparatively small scale.”
Ethanol has a great potential to reduce CO2 emissions. The largest producers of ethanol from sugar cane are situated outside the Brazilian city of Ribeirão Preto.
“To enable truck manufacturers such as Scania to make serious contributions to sustainable transport, it is important that companies and politicians around the world create clear rules of the game so that vehicle owners can feel secure in their choice of fuel,” Johansson says.
“This requires political decisions that support the creation of an infrastructure for distribution and certification of biofuels,” he says. “It is also important that biofuels are produced in the most efficient way in different parts of the world and that we remove tariffs so there will be free competition. This also has great potential for improving economic prosperity in developing countries.”
Read more on www.scania.com/biofuel
Text: Per-Ola Knutas
Photo: Carl-Erik Andersson and Getty Images
