Kennards Hire makes “groundbreaking shift” in biodiesel use

Photo: Kennards Hire

Australia-based rental company Kennards Hire has said it has made a “groundbreaking shift towards providing sustainable options for large-scale infrastructure projects” with the use of four generators with B20 biodiesel.

The generators, which were used on the Sydney Metro - Western Sydney Airport rail project, marks the company’s first use of B20 biodiesel to meet the requirements of principal contractor, CPB Contractors United Infrastructure Joint Venture (CPBUI JV).

The company had previously used B5, which is 5% vegetable oils 95% diesel blend, as opposed to the B20 which uses a 20% recycled cooking oils to 80% diesel fuel blend. 

Kennards said that sustainability was a key factor for the CPBUI JV for its work on the $539 million Surface and Civil Alignment Works (SCAW), which involves works on the Sydney Metro railway line, joining the new airport to the existing Sydney Trains suburban T1 western line at St Marys.

It said this section of the works is waiting on Australia First endorsement from the Infrastructure Sustainability Council (ISC)  for lower emissions biodiesel use across all plant and equipment.

Three 100KVA and one 120KVA were used, with the “only notable difference” an initial 250-hour running check of the filters, before standard 500-hour services were resumed, Kennards Hire said.

Paul Nicholson, operations product specialist – power and renewable energies, Kennards Hire, said, “Today’s biodiesel is very refined and meets high standards. We used to have to change the filters more regularly, but current blends present no issues. Other companies are now expressing an interest in changing up to B20, as they see the value of using it on-site.”

Christine Mueller, NSW/ACT sustainability manager at CPB Contractors, added that it’s a “big leap forward” to use biodiesel across the entire project, with CPB Contractors reporting a reduction of 200 tCO2e, said to be equivalent to taking 70 cars off the road annually. 

“All generators on the SCAW project are using B20, with all other plant and equipment using B5. With more than a thousand items of plant and equipment on-site, this sets a new benchmark,” said Mueller

Nicholson added, “You can run it in your existing generators, a big advantage. You can add batteries and solar to a biodiesel-fueled generator to make it more sustainable, reducing the overall carbon footprint.”