The realities of the commercial transition to decarbonisation are set to be scrutinised at the upcoming Victorian Transport Association (VTA) Alternative Fuel Summit.
A panel of 20 speakers from academia, the private sector and government will present over the day-long event on 19 November, offering detailed accounts, updates and insights to offer a comprehensive perspective on the matter.
VTA CEO, Peter Anderson, said that discussion of the actual transition into sustainable fuelling has been a long time coming at the summit.
“The first forum we had three years ago was hosted to get people’s minds around the fact that we actually were going to change away from diesel,” he said.
“The second forum focused on the infrastructure required to make the change. The third one, this one, is all about transition. What it will actually look like, how we can build a business case for companies to use when making the transition.
“We’re really trying to help business operators understand how long it’s going to take, what they’ll need to do and the commitments involved.”
For this year’s Alternative Fuels Summit, communicating the financial viability of decarbonisation to businesses beyond the reliance of government support is the focal point.
“We’re being driven by government policy, and the process that comes with it is what we struggle with,” Anderson said.
“It’s great to have policy but you’ve got to have process. Subsidies and grants are not going to sustain the industry during this transition, they won’t create an everlasting process. All these startups are using the best technologies and brilliant people, but they aren’t surviving because they’re not making money.”
One of the Summit’s responses to this primary concern is the Green Star initiative, a collaborative program with the Swinburne University of Technology and the Kangan Institute which is being developed to aid businesses in taking accountability for their own carbon emissions through the form of various technology systems and softwares.
One of the Summit’s key panelists and returning speakers, Dr Hadi Ghaderi, is leading this research initiative from Swinburne, and will present some of its relevant research.
“While last year’s presentation served as more of a discovery, this year we’ve done many projects in this space and there will be more analytical findings to present,” he said.
Some of these analytics to be presented at the Summit include research trends on the total cost of ownership of zero-emission trucks — which is reportedly decreasing — in addition to the cost of manufacturing zero emissions technology in general.
With Swinburne, Ghaderi’s research is exploring a multitude of fuelling technologies and alternative fuel options, working with state and federal government bodies as well as some independent organisations. The Green Star research project is just one of the sustainable approaches being tested.
“One of the very interesting solutions we have is a heavy vehicle emission measurement tool which is very unique,” Ghaderi said.
“It can help operators to measure and report on their emission levels. We are planning to test a few biodiesel solutions very soon as well, if we’re talking about more on-ground and practical work.
“Hydrogen is also on our agenda. We have a joint facility with the CSIRO for hydrogen refuelling.”
In addition to current government collaborations, Ghaderi hopes for the Government to take a more proactive approach to research and development in the freight industry, as this would yield crucial information on how to transition the sector towards sustainability.
“In Australia, we don’t have an active freight R&D landscape,” he said.
“We are mainly adopters of freight technologies, particularly for zero emissions technologies. I think it’s time for us to develop a national capability around low and zero-emission heavy vehicles. We can be the next exporter of this technology. If something works here, it will work everywhere.”
Reflecting on his own methods of championing alternative fuel and sustainability, Ghaderi believes his research would be greatly benefitted by more direct communication with members of the freight industry to both educate and learn more about the sector’s sustainability plight.
“I would love to get closer to the industry, to talk and listen to them, let them say what they want, and work with them to understand their needs,” he said.
“There are many behavioural, cultural and social aspects related to decarbonisation. It’s not just the capability of a truck. We need to understand the needs of drivers and operators in the industry to fill a knowledge gap through research and education.”
The provisional program can be found here.
