In a House of Commons debate secured by Andrew Selous MP, Members of Parliament have encouraged ministers to take further action on diesel-powered transport refrigeration units.
Mr Selous, MP for South West Bedfordshire, led Wednesday’s hour-long debate on ultra-low emission vehicles, and said it was a vital issue to help tackle climate change, create new industries, respond to the challenges of energy security, and help reduce the cost of driving. He also called on ministers to tackle highly polluting and unregulated transport refrigeration units (TRUs). The growing calls for tighter regulation of TRUs mean the industry needs to prepare. This leaves Dearman well-placed to deliver, with the company having developed a zero emission TRU which is currently undergoing advanced road trials. Dearman’s novel piston engine uses the expansion of either liquid air or liquid nitrogen to provide zero-emission power and cooling. The only emission is air or nitrogen, with no emissions of nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide or particulate matter. Conventional diesel transport refrigeration systems are lightly regulated and can emit up to 29 times as much particulate matter and six times as much NOx as a modern truck engine. Britain’s 84,000 TRUs becoming zero-emission would equate to taking 5.5 million Euro6 diesel cars off our roads.