Ground handling vehicles at Schiphol to run entirely on renewable fuel
Soon, all ground handling vehicles on the apron at Schiphol will refuel using renewable fuel HVO100. Using this fuel means a 98% reduction in CO2 emissions. The renewable diesel will be used as an intermediate solution until all vehicles run on electricity or hydrogen and are emission free. Parties in the aviation sector continue to work on reaching that goal by 2030.
KLM Equipment Services (KES), the fuel supplier for all vehicles on the apron, will be delivering HVO100 instead of Gas-to-liquid (GTL) as of 1 January. HVO100 is a renewable alternative to diesel. It is made artificially without the use of fossil resources. The properties of HVO100 are comparable to those of GTL and fossil diesel, so modifications to the diesel engines are not necessary. Neste supplies the renewable fuel.
“ This is a significant step on the way towards a zero-emission ground operation in 2030. The vehicles for which there are currently no electric or hydrogen alternatives available can run on HVO100. Everyone on airside is making use of it, including Aviapartner, dnata, Menzies, Swissport, KLM Ground Services and Viggo. We’re pleased about that. It’s also important that we all continue to expand the number of electric vehicles at Schiphol. We are also going to considerably expand the number of charging stations.”
– Denise Pronk, responsible for sustainability at Royal Schiphol Group
”At the moment, 40% of the motorised equipment at the airport runs on electricity. And that number will increase over the coming years. However, for a number of specialist heavy vehicles it is a technical challenge to develop a battery with sufficient capacity that can also be charged quickly enough. This is therefore a good intermediate solution.”
– Paul Feldbrugge, responsible for the Zero Emission Programme within KES