by Business Editor Trevor Sturgess

An award-winning Kent firm aims to be wizard in Oz after driving its lorry fuel-saving technology Down Under.

Oil Drum, based in Canterbury and Sittingbourne, has granted a licence for its Save-Fuel On Demand Hydrogen Generators to be manufactured, distributed and installed across Australia and New Zealand. .Australian "road trains" cover huge fuel-guzzling distances and operators there are expected to embrace Oil Drum’s technology

The products, developed with the help of the University of Kent, cut truck fuel consumption by more than 10 per cent, as well as reducing carbon and hydrogen emissions to zero.

The fast-growing business which won last year's Kent Innovation Challenge, has teamed up with Apollo Gas Products, a specialist LPG technology business based near Sydney to create a new company Save-Fuel Australia P/L.

Darryl Watts, managing director of Oil Drum, said: "Australia has the largest and heaviest road-legal vehicles in the world, with some super trucks weighing in at close to 200 tonnes, which is nearly fives times the maximum allowed here in the UK. Add to this the immense distances these vehicles operate over and fuel consumption is even more of an issue for the Australian freight industry."

Peter Dane, Apollo managing director, added: "It is clear that their technology will be of a great economic and environmental benefit to hauliers in Australia." He said there was also potential for fitting the technology to motor powered marine vessels.

The international licensing agreement with Apollo was developed for Oil Drum by Vertex Law, the commercial law firm based at Kings Hill in Kent.

Meanwhile, Oil Drum is also working with BAE Systems, the global defence and aerospace company with a base in Rochester, to evaluate the application of the Save-Fuel product on military vehicles. It is also talking to possible licensees in the US, South Africa and Singapore.