A “quick-win” engine-cleaning service that removes carbon build-up from inside combustion engines led to an average CO2 and fuel saving of 15% for a contracting firm’s fleet of tippers and vans.

Engine Carbon Clean (ECC) pipes hydrogen into a standard engine’s air intake and ‘pops’ the carbon off from the inside, including the pre-combustion parts.

Its removal allows the engine to breathe, enabling revolutions per minute to return back to the manufacturer’s recommended levels.

Over four months, transport industry engineering firm 1stInrail trialled the process created by Advanced Hydrogen Technology Group, on 25 of its vehicles and was so impressed with the results it is now rolling out ECC across its 140-strong fleet.

Hydrogen is piped into the air intake and the engine sucks in on demand what it needs.

Hydrogen is piped into the air intake and the engine sucks in on demand what it needs

Stephen Jackson, MD at 1stInrail, said: “We had hoped for figures that showed a saving in fuel, and therefore CO2 emissions, ranging from 7 to 10%, so to receive confirmation that we had achieved an average reduction of 15% was a very pleasant surprise.

“What attracted us to the ECC process initially is it’s a quick win that measurably takes us forwards in the group’s aim to reduce absolute Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030.

“It’s a simple and non-intrusive solution that’s easy to deploy and most importantly the saving in fuel more than offsets the cost of the engine cleaning and basically provides a cost-free carbon reduction process.”

Chris Tindall started writing for the haulage and logistics industry in 2002 and quickly realised there was enough going on to keep him busy for a very long time.View full Profile

More from Chris Tindall