Methane tractor wins Sustainable Tractor of the Year 2027
11 November 2026
New Holland has won the Sustainable Tractor of the Year 2027 award with the T7.270 Methane Power, its 270 hp tractor powered by compressed natural gas and renewable biomethane produced from agricultural waste streams.
The government-funded APC Collaborate ATLAS project facilitated the launch of the world’s first liquid fugitive methane-powered off-highway agricultural tractor – built in the UK.
The project brought together a range of next-generation technologies – methane is harvested from livestock slurry, water treatment, landfill gas or the decomposition of biomass which would otherwise ‘escape’ (i.e. fugitive) into the atmosphere, making this a carbon negative activity.
The consortium included:
- CNH Industrial NV, Basildon, Essex
- Bennamann Limited, Truro, Cornwall
- Eminox Limited, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire
- European Thermodynamics Limited, Kibworth, Leicestershire
Steve Brown, Senior Project Delivery Lead at the APC, said:
“The APC is proud to have supported this award-winning tractor. The Collaborate ATLAS project brought together expertise across the UK to design and build an ecosystem to capture farm-based methane emissions and use that to fuel the T7 tractor. Both the fuelling system and tractor can be supplied through CNH. The groundbreaking tractor is manufactured at CNH’s New Holland factory in Basildon, Essex.
It shows how targeted government grant funding, combined with industry investment in new technologies, can bring successes in commercialised innovation.”
Building on the experience gained with the T6.180 Methane Power, developed under a previous APC project, the T7.270 Methane Power extends the brand’s methane technology into a higher power category, making it suitable for biomethane plant operators, large arable farms, contractors and other customers carrying out demanding field and transport work.
“New Holland began investing in alternative fuels nearly two decades ago, because we believed agriculture could play an active role in producing renewable energy, not simply consuming it,” said Darragh Mullin, New Holland T7 Long Wheelbase Global Product Manager. “With the T7.270 Methane Power, we have doubled down on that commitment by bringing methane technology to a tractor with the power, performance and versatility required for demanding work. This award is a strong endorsement of the potential of methane technology to support a more sustainable future for agriculture.”
In partnership with Bennamann, a UK-based clean-energy technology company and part of CNH, New Holland supports a circular farming model in which fugitive methane from livestock manure can be captured, processed and refined for use as tractor fuel. This approach can help farms reduce emissions and work towards greater energy self-sufficiency.
Find out more about DRIVE35 Collaborate
Watch our case study on the T6 tractor
The UK Government’s £4 billion DRIVE35 programme is delivered by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade in partnership with the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC) and Innovate UK. All UK Government grant funding is subject to HMG approval.