New Holland – caring for the environment

When it comes to protecting and preserving our environment, which is of interest and concern to each and every one of us, New Holland Construction has adopted a multi-pronged approach.

Of course, the on-going European directives demanding reduction in machine noise pollution, never more important than on inner city job sites with high density, residential populations, and the reduction in exhaust gases, have a role to play, and New Holland stringently adheres to these requirements.

Due to its lower environmental impact, and offering a renewable source of energy, Bio diesel is creating a lot of interest among manufacturers. As the availability of fossil fuels becomes a greater problem, there is a need to look at alternatives, but they must also be cleaner, environmentally sensitive alternatives. New Holland is renowned for its innovation and forward-thinking approach, and committed to bringing its customers the latest technology and the benefits it brings.

Bio diesel is a fuel produced from crops such as rape seed and sunflower seed and can be used as either B100, or blended with conventional diesel to produce a bio diesel blend. These fuels must meet specified industry standards for fuel quality (EN14214) to ensure optimum performance and durability of the engine.

Blends of bio diesels found in the market typically contain 2% (B2), 5% (B5) or 20% (B20) of FAME. The construction equipment division of New Holland has at this stage approved the use of B5 and an aggressive programme for factory fill on all engines manufactured for the company is under way. The agricultural division of New Holland, on the other hand, is the first agricultural equipment brand to fully embrace the potential of bio diesel and recently announced that it supports the use of bio diesel blends up to 20% (B20) throughout Europe on all current production equipment with CNH engines.

CNH – Case New Holland, the group of which New Holland is part, is also part of the Fiat Group and is working alongside FTP – Fiat PowerTrain Technologies – in terms of moving the programme forward. For New Holland construction equipment today, the B20 blend can be used on the new backhoe loader line, the two larger, tracked skid steer models – not currently available in Europe – and the W110 and W130 wheel loaders.

“As increasingly tight emissions legislation is introduced, we want to make sure that we are in a position to offer our customers engines they can confidently run on bio diesel,” stated Gianmaria Olivetti, Engineering Executive Director of Fiat PowerTrain, which develops and builds CNH engines. “We are running an intensive testing programme to evaluate the performance and reliability of all our engines with higher blends of bio diesel, and in the coming months we will be in a position to support the use of 100% bio diesel in our engines.”

The European Union is the world’s largest producer of bio diesel, both in terms of volume and capability, and its production level is still growing fast. Recognising bio diesel as an important element to meet its emission reduction targets, tax incentives have been introduced in several Member States to encourage the use of bio diesel. This makes bio diesel a more cost-effective fuel than conventional diesel for New Holland's customers in many countries.

New Holland’s consideration toward environmental issues is clear on the equipment side too. Why increase the environmental impact with multiple machines at work when machines like the E150 “Blade Runner” can effectively supply “two machines in one”? Selling successfully already in the United States, and being introduced into Europe shortly, this machine is a crawler excavator but also has the capability of a mid-sized crawler dozer, achieved via a modified undercarriage which incorporates a 6-way dozer blade.

The only one of its kind, Blade Runner really does re-define construction equipment versatility and is suitable for a multitude of applications…. confined spaces, embankment work, landfill sites… to name but a few, where digging, loading, dozing and backfilling requirements could be handled by the same machine. The benefit to customers of this innovative yet practical solution is obvious, both from an investment and from a practicality standpoint, where one machine can effectively perform the tasks of two, but the impact on the environment cannot be understated.

Consideration to energy source diversification is also a crucial factor as we look towards the future. Thanks to its global alliance partner, Kobelco, Japan, New Holland recently presented the “HYBRID”; a crawler excavator demonstrating the next step in the development of what can be considered “truly environmentally friendly” construction equipment machinery. Kobelco was the first manufacturer in the construction equipment industry to present this type of technology to the market, announcing it to the Japanese press just one week ahead of its exposure in Europe.

Kobelco has been studying this new hybrid technology in order to reduce emissions as well as fuel consumption of hydraulic excavators, and this development has been accelerated in order to be in line with the Kyoto protocol and its declared intent of preventing global warming.

Featuring both a diesel engine and a battery-powered motor, the prototype HYBRID underlines the advanced technology of Kobelco in the domain of crawler excavator design, development and manufacture. The objective of this prototype Hybrid is to achieve a 40% reduction in fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions compared with the current diesel engine base model, and tests to date have demonstrated that the machine has the same capabilities as the same class excavator powered by only a diesel engine. The use of the battery-powered motor enables a smaller diesel engine to be used which, in itself, contributes to lower emissions and fuel consumption - another valuable and diminishing resource - but without sacrificing the machine’s digging performance.

It is a development that clearly demonstrates Kobelco and New Holland, as global alliance partners, aim to provide products that are both friendly to the environment and also contribute to society.