UK-based utility company adds electric HGVs powered by feces

United Utilities deployed four electric trucks as part of its involvement in the ‘Electric Freightway’ project by GRIDSERVE.

United Utilities is introducing four electric heavy goods vehicles (HGV) powered by feces. The firm is the only water company in the UK taking part in the £100 million + ‘Electric Freightway’ project led by GRIDSERVE. 

These vehicles are based at the company’s Bioresources Centre in Manchester where they are used to transport sewage sludge. This by-product of sewage treatment is transported from other wastewater treatment facilities across the North West for processing at the Davyhulme site.

They are then charged up at Davyhulme using the renewable electricity which is produced on site from the processed sewage sludge.

“We call this ‘black gold’ because of the renewable energy we can release when it is processed. Using the vehicles to collect the sludge and then using the clean energy it generates to charge their batteries is a great way of maximising the potential of that resource,” described Tom Lissett, Bioresources and Green Energy Director at United Utilities.

The initiative is funded as part of the Department for Transport and Innovate UK backed Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator programme.

United Utilities joins a consortium of 33 companies including Sainsbury’s, Amazon and the Royal Mail taking part in the project. All participants aim to lay the foundations for the biggest and most advanced Electric Heavy Goods Vehicle (eHGV) charging networks in the world.