Biofuels, hydrogen, and electrification are making their way onto the heavy construction landscape. But just how easily travelled will the road to a greener future be?
There’s no way around it: the construction industry is one of the planet’s largest contributors to carbon emissions, with heavy machinery accounting for a substantial portion.
The diesel donks that power everything from the lowliest skid steer to the biggest bully are designed for maximum grunt and longevity under load. But they also produce significant particulate emissions. Pollution – both in terms of noise and what comes out the exhaust pipe – is a seemingly unavoidable workday factor for the industry.
Given the increasing urgency to address climate change, as well as provide safer and healthier worksites and machinery for employees and operators, stakeholders from government bodies to construction firms and machine manufacturers are seeking ways to cut emissions without sacrificing performance.
So, when it comes to an alternative to dino juice, what are the options?
Biofuel
One of the most adaptable solutions is the use of biofuel, which can be used in existing diesel engines with little or no modification. In fact, engine manufacturers like Cummins ensure their products will run on biofuel from the get-go.
Biodiesel, produced from renewable resources like vegetable oils and animal fats, and renewable diesel, which is chemically similar to fossil diesel but made from organic waste, are gaining traction as drop-in fuels.
Biofuels offer a double advantage: they emit significantly fewer pollutants than conventional diesel, and they can be used in an existing fleet of diesel-powered construction equipment. This flexibility is appealing to contractors who may not be ready to – or simply can’t – fully electrify their fleet.
Hydrogen
We’ve already seen passenger vehicle manufacturers, such as Toyota and Hyundai, develop hydrogen-fuelled cars with gusto. Toyota has been running a fleet of hydrogen lease vehicles in Japan and the US for several years now.
But the fuel source – which powers a vehicle by creating electrical energy through a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen – could also have immense potential for heavy-duty applications.
The big win for hydrogen in the construction sector is that it can provide similar power and torque to conventional diesel engines, but unlike battery-electric options that require extended downtime to recharge, a hydrogen-powered machine could be refuelled in minutes.
There has been rapid progress in developing hydrogen-powered long-haul trucks by manufacturers like Daimler, Hyundai and Volvo. But hydrogen fuel cells are still in much earlier development stages for heavy construction.
Hyundai, JCB and Komatsu have announced initiatives to bring hydrogen-powered excavators, loaders and other machinery to market. But there are definite barriers to mass adoption, such as the cost of building refuelling stations, and the per-unit cost of hydrogen (it’s greener than diesel but more expensive).
There’s also the slight niggle that most hydrogen is produced using fossil fuels, which defeats the point to an extent. However, green hydrogen (produced using renewable energy) is gaining traction as a truly zero-emissions alternative.
Electric
Not only is this the most readily feasible alternative ‘fuel’, but machines utilising it are already on the market.
While the massive batteries your large crane or quarry excavator would currently require in order to run silently and smoothly all day long make electrification impractical at that end of the scale, the tech is well suited to smaller machines. And there are plenty out there already.
Liebherr, JCB, Bobcat and XCMG, for example, have all introduced electric versions of existing models, aimed at low-emission project tender requirements. Volvo – which as a group is aiming to have electric vehicles make up 35 percent of all their vehicles within the next six years – has also released a variety of electric equipment onto the local market.
Andrew Falloon, Volvo product manager for New Zealand distributor TDX, says their range of Volvo Electric machines include compact excavators and wheel loaders, with larger electric models slated for release next year.
And it’s not just environmental considerations that make an electric machine more desirable.
As part of a pilot partnership between TDX and Fulton Hogan, the company has been trialling a Volvo L120 electric loader at an asphalt recycling plant in Auckland since December 2023. Andrew says the pilot was the third of its kind in the world and the first in the southern hemisphere.
The collaboration is designed to test the machine’s suitability for local applications, as well as providing data and feedback regarding all-round performance.
“The reduced energy cost revealed by the trial exceeded TDX’s expectations,” says Andrew. “The most recent round of user data and feedback from the trial reveals financial savings for the energy consumed of between 64.5 percent and 78.7 percent.
“While it’s important to note that fuel cost is only one – albeit important – part of the equation, these results point to potentially major longer-term financial benefits, alongside the environmental considerations.”
Zero exhaust emissions might be the headline factor, but there are other attributes in an electric machine’s favour, including reduced noise pollution in urban areas, fewer moving parts, and lower maintenance costs. However, they also require downtime to recharge and generally have a shorter runtime than their diesel counterparts, making them better suited to specific, targeted applications.
Roadblocks
Despite the momentum in some comers, significant challenges remain. High upfront costs for alternative fuel technology, such as hydrogen fuel cells or electric batteries, must be passed on to the customer by manufacturers, leading to premium pricing for such models. That may be prohibitive for many firms, and not just small ones.
Also, while greener in performance, the current alternatives often struggle to match diesel’s refuelling efficiency, especially where long shifts are concerned. No operator wants to suffer more downtime for their gear than they already have to, after all.
In New Zealand, typical rugged back country conditions and remote locations can also pose significant hurdles for electric and hydrogen solutions, which require extensive charging and specific fuelling infrastructure.
So, while the ‘need’ in the industry has certainly become a conversation, there are no quick fixes or one-size-fits-all solutions. Diesel, in other words, will continue to lead the options list for some time to come.
“We believe there is still opportunities to run a highly efficient diesel engine, which Volvo prides itself on, to ensure whatever offering we recommend to our customers is fit for purpose,” says Andrew. “But we are working with each of our customers to embrace technology and alternative fuels where it makes sense.”
The country’s passenger vehicle fleet has gone through mammoth change in terms of increased electrification within the last five or six years, putting the country – for a while at least – on par with green tech leaders like Norway and Germany in terms of uptake.
While the construction sector will prove a slower moving beast, the desire for a greener future is there. It might just be a case of transitioning towards that future one project, and one machine, at a time.
Images supplied