ULEMCo's story
Liverpool-based Ultra Low Emissions Mileage Company (ULEMCo) was founded in 2014 as a spin out of Revolve Technologies, to commercialise hydrogen combustion engine technology. The company converts vehicles to enable them to run on commercially available hydrogen and started in the early days by converting diesel Ford Transit vans.
ULEMCo's main focus is on 'dual fuel', enabling hydrogen to be mixed with diesel directly in a conventional engine, supplied via onboard gas tanks, in volumes that displace between 30-70% of the energy from diesel. This gives direct tailpipe CO2 emission savings based on the comparative use of zero-carbon hydrogen in the mix instead of diesel.
This dual fuel technology allows vehicle fleet managers to reduce their carbon emissions to ultra-low levels. Commercial fleets across the UK benefit from a reduced carbon footprint while still having the full range capability of standard diesel vehicles. Alongside various partners, ULEMCo also supports a fleet of vehicles across a range of hydrogen hubs in the UK.
Useful learnings from ULEMCo
By using existing engine technology, the cost of becoming 'hydrogen enabled' is minimal in comparison to other low emission options, which provides a good first step in achieving substantial emission reduction now, whilst other technologies are still in development or too expensive for some fleet managers.
This kind of dual fuel technology can be applied to any engine, and any vehicle can be hydrogen enabled depending on the space on board for hydrogen storage. This means that whole fleets can be considered for conversion to maximise local green hydrogen production.
Enabling more vehicles to run partly on hydrogen can provide a big boost in making renewable green hydrogen viable by increasing the volumes of hydrogen required from nascent hydrogen refuelling infrastructure. With this in mind, heavy-duty 'back to base' operations are ideally suited to scaled volumes for onsite green hydrogen generation and maximum carbon emission reductions.
ULEMCo's metrics
Continue targeting commercial fleet conversions to grow the market significantly.
Expand into other vehicle types over the longer term.
Create a hydrogen re-fuelling network, to capitalise on the existing local infrastructure for this green fuel.
