Bus maker Optare in deal to cut emissions

BUS maker Optare has signed a deal with a technology firm which will enable it to cut vehicle fuel costs and emissions.

The AIM-listed Lancashire-based firm which has significant operations in Yorkshire, has reached an exclusive agreement with the Hardstaff Group giving it rights to its dual-fuel conversion system for use in both new and existing passenger vehicles.

The system enables engines to run on a mixture of diesel and bio-methane gas with benefits in terms of reduced fuel cost and considerably lower noise and emission levels.
Optare said it had already won a contract, with Lincolnshire county council, to convert 11 buses to the dual-fuel system.

Buses using the system are expected to achieve carbon reduction levels in excess of 50% of those from a conventional diesel only bus when utilising bio-methane derived from landfill gas or anaerobic digestion.

Buses using the Dual-Fuel system are eligible for the Government’s £30m  “Green Bus Grant”.

Development of the first dual-fuel Optare bus using the system has recently been undertaken by a consortium. The consortium is led by the Low Carbon Innovation Centre at the University of East Anglia and includes Anglian Bus a leading Norfolk independent bus operator, Optare and Hardstaff.

Jim Sumner, chief executive of Darwen-based Optare, commented, “The Hardstaff agreement is a strategically important development for Optare, particularly given the current background that bus operators are facing with growing environmental pressures and rising fuel costs.

“We are therefore delighted to have secured the contract with LCC for the UK’s first fleet of low carbon bio-methane buses. I am confident that LCC’s example will lead the way for other local authorities to use bio-methane buses to help meet their carbon reduction goals.”