Leading the construction industry towards a net-zero future
Project blog 3 - March 2025 by Colin Evison
Leading the construction industry towards a net-zero future
At BAM, one of the key principles we hold is working effectively with our partners and nothing demonstrates this as effectively as Element 1; a dual-fuel hydrogen R&D solution.
It’s a cross-industry consortium led by BAM which has developed the use of hydrogen as a supplement to lower diesel usage on construction sites. With a grant of £4,872,653 secured from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s (DESNZ) from its Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP), the project aims to reduce diesel consumption on construction sites by supplementing traditional diesel fuel with hydrogen. The beauty of Element 1 is that it uses existing diesel plant, converted to a hybrid machine capable of offsetting diesel by up to 30%, reducing the cost and waste of retiring perfectly functional machinery.
It’s one of many avenues we’re exploring to reduce carbon in the construction industry, such as BAM’s hosting of the initial tests for the JCB hydrogen telehandler, currently near the end stages of development.
In my last blog, back in November 2024, I talked about how BAM had successfully showcased the dual-fuel hydrogen excavator at a demonstration in Manchester, developed in conjunction with our partners at Element 1; GeoPura, ULEMCo, Plantforce, Flannery, BRE, SKANSKA and Reynolds.
Well now I can tell you that we have all four of our converted dual-fuel excavators deployed and in use on sites at Manchester, Brighouse and Ravensthorpe. It feels fantastic to see our creation not just on a demo site; but a real-world construction site, contributing to our nation’s infrastructure. We’ve been successful in developing the dual-fuel solution for two different types of excavators and we’re now seeing valuable insights in how the use of hydrogen may form part of the future fuel strategy for construction.
When I went to visit the Brighouse site, shown in the video above, I reflected on the importance of working with our partners, as frankly, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve this without working as a collaborative team, towards a common goal.
So, what else is new? All four dual-fuel machines have been on site for several weeks and we’re learning valuable insights as each site has its own needs and challenges. Recent developments include improvements to the software that controls the rate of hydrogen injection into the engines resulting in improved hydrogen fuel consumption figures. This is only the start of what I see as a groundbreaking yet pragmatic solution to reducing carbon emissions in our industry.
The assembly of the Element1 mobile refueller, HyTANKa™, is now complete and is undergoing a series of stringent tests and inspections to allow it to deliver hydrogen to sites using the public highway. This complex vehicle is truly revolutionary, and we look forward to putting it to work supporting our dual-fuel machines.
Again, this shows the importance we place on working with our partners at BAM, together we can achieve so much more.
What are the next steps for Element 1? We’re collecting data from all four dual-fuel machines deployed on the construction sites which will be used to form our conclusions, set to be published in spring 2025 after the project completes on 31 March.
But my thoughts are that this is only the beginning. I am proud of the collaborative effort from all involved in the Element 1 project. I look forward to seeing how this technology develops, making possible a greener future for our industry.
About the author
Colin Evison
Innovation Technical Lead
Colin leads the Innovation department. He works with departments across BAM UK and Ireland and the wider group to promote innovation in our business.
When he’s not managing innovation initiatives, he’s developing processes to streamline how we deploy innovation in the business. He looks at how we can make better use of data and how we can play a part in the shift towards Smart Cities.
Colin joined BAM Nuttall in 1997 and became a chartered civil engineer in 1998. He was admitted as a fellow of ICE in 2011. Outside of his main job, he supports graduate civil engineers on ICE Training Schemes.
