Device helps hauliers keep on trucking

By Bob Sherwood
Published: January 19 2009 02:00

As the road haulage industry battles to cut costs in the face of the downturn, one company is finding its fuel-saving technology is in demand.
Kent-based Oil Drum is in the final stages of agreeing licensing deals that will enable its Save-Fuel device, which its tests have shown can cut hauliers’ fuel bills by 10 per cent, to be manufactured and sold in international markets, including the US, Australia and India.

When it launched last year, Oil Drum caught hauliers’ attention by claiming to be able to reduce their diesel consumption and exhaust emissions at the height of the rise in fuel prices. Its bolt-on device mixes hydrogen with air and diesel in a vehicle engine that creates a cleaner, more efficient combustion process.
The company has also just signed a UK licensing agreement with Andel, which has a wide client base in the haulage industry as a provider of leak detection systems, to market its device more widely.
Darryl Watts, Oil Drum’s founder and managing director, is reluctant to claim that last year’s high fuel costs and the downturn are good for business, but he accepts that his product has arrived at an opportune time for the hard-pressed haulage industry.
How the technology works
The Save-Fuel device makes the internal combustion engine process more efficient by adding hydrogen to diesel, petrol or even biofuels. .
The 15kg device, housed in a marine-grade stainless steel case, converts distilled water to hydrogen by passing an electrical current through it, a process known as electrolysis.
A hose from the unit delivers the gas to the air intake of the vehicle.
The unit is safe because the hydrogen is produced on demand, using a small charge from the vehicle’s battery. No hydrogen is stored and the gas dissipates within a second of the unit being turned off.
As the hydrogen creates a more efficient burning process, Oil Drum says it creates greater fuel efficiency and fewer emissions. The units use a reservoir of 13 litres of distilled water, which is enough for six weeks’ use.
Oil Drum says the only maintenance needed is to top up the water reservoir during the vehicle’s routine servicing, so there are no additional costs.
The device bolts on to the rear of a truck’s cab but smaller units are being developed for vans and light commercial vehicles.
Oil Drum is now preparing a targeted share offering to generate funds for the development of a second-stage product aimed at the light commercial, van and 4x4 market.
Mr Watts, 39, a former motor industry executive, hit on the idea for the technology during a visit to a carmaker’s factory that demonstrated what happened to an engine left running in a sealed environment that was enriched with hydrogen.
He said: “It’s a known fact that hydrogen gives a quicker, cleaner and more efficient burn, but no one wants to drive around with a canister of pressured hydrogen. No one else has commercialised a product that produces hydrogen on demand.”
Mr Watts and long-term friend Steve Martin, who ran an electronics contracting company and is now technical director, gave up their jobs to develop the product. They say their trials show the Fuel-Save device, which bolts to the back of a truck’s cab, gives a 10 to 15 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions and a cut in hydrocarbons to zero. But it is the cost savings rather than the green credentials that have so far attracted customers.
Construction haulier GSE Haulage this month became the first to install the device in its entire fleet of heavy goods vehicles and tipper trucks. Other companies have installed the device on a proportion of their fleets. One of Europe’ largest bus companies has also conducted a test that produced an 18.6 per cent increase in fuel efficiency.
Mr Watts says the £3,500 ($5,155) device pays for itself within the first year of operation based on typical mileages. It is also available at a leasing cost of £99 per month for 36 months.
With a staff of just six, based at the University of Kent’s enterprise hub at Canterbury and with a small manufacturing base at Sittingbourne, Mr Watts realised the company was too small to realise the potential of its technology. That is why he has pursued the licensing deals, designed to leave Oil Drum free to pursue the next generation of devices.
The University of Kent holds a 10 per cent stake in the company, with another 20 per cent in the hands of two other investors, including a trucking company. Mr Watts, his wife Denise, and Mr Martin hold the remaining 70 per cent but plan to sell another 20 per cent as they develop prototypes of a van device.
A smaller domestic car device is also planned and Mr Watts has held discussions with carmakers about the potential for a production line unit to be fitted at the point of manufacture.
Oil Drum expects to break even in its first year of trading with a turnover of £1.4m, which is predicted to increase to £5m next year. The University of Kent has valued the company at £5m, with the intellectual property currently estimated to be worth £1.4m.
It is the scale of the market that excites Mr Watts most, however. He said: “There are an estimated 440,000 trucks larger than 3.5 tonnes in the UK and 60,000 companies with operating licences. But there are 4.7m large trucks in the US. The potential is enormous.”