Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil Trial Underway in Perth City

Perth and Kinross Council has begun a trial using Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) fuel in six of its refuse vehicles serving Perth city.

At a meeting of the Climate Change and Sustainability Committee in February, Elected Members agreed to trialling the use of HVO fuel as an alternative to diesel in some of our large fleet vehicles.

The trial will finish on Sunday 4th August. If the trial proves to be successful, we will consider extending the use of HVO fuel more widely in our fleet.

Councillor Richard Watters, Convener of the Climate Change and Sustainability Committee said: “This trial is an exciting step forward for the Council making changes that will have an immediate impact to reduce carbon emissions coming from our fleet. This is the first step we are taking to decarbonise our fleet, but it is a significant step and I’m confident that at the end of the trial we will see the results we are looking for and lay the foundations for further carbon reduction measures going forward.

“I hope through this trial we can gain experience in our use of HVO as we seek to embrace measures to move away from traditional fuels.”

Councillor Liz Barrett, Vice-Convener of the Climate Change and Sustainability Committee, said: “Alternative fuels are at the stage where we as consumers can be confident that they are viable. The key thing is proving that we can continue to deliver the high level of service that we provide, but in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way. I look forward to the results at the end of the trial and further roll out to our larger vehicles.”

It is estimated that the Council's fleet creates over 2,690 tonnes of CO2 each year. Replacing the Council's cars and vans with electric vehicles could reduce the Council's carbon footprint by 600 tonnes per year.

However, a considerable step forward in reducing the Council's carbon footprint generated by its larger fleet vehicles, without the need for significant capital investment is to introduce the use of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as an alternative to diesel. Changing the type of fuel we use will allow us to reduce CO2 emissions from our HGV fleet by up to 90%.