Results of two-year trial of the use of biomethane in heavy trucks published

Wed 13 November 2019 View all news

The results of the Dedicated to Gas project, deploying 20 Euro VI vehicles running on biomethane have been published. The report says that the project saved over 1,400 tonnes of well-to-wheel CO2e emissions compared to diesel in a two-year trial. The tests showed that the vehicles emitted similar low levels of NOx as their Euro VI diesel counterparts.
 
The project deployed 20 Euro VI vehicles running on biomethane, as a combination of compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquified natural gas (LNG) trucks to the three fleet operators. The project was funded in part by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles and Innovate UK’s Low Emission Freight and Logistics Trial (LEFT) and delivered in partnership with Cenex, Air Liquide, Emissions Analytics, Microlise, Asda, Howard Tenens and Kuehne + Nagel.
 
The trial vehicles travelled over 2.2 million kilometres. The results showed that, when compared to diesel, vehicles would make at least 17% greenhouse gas emission savings with a 25% biomethane blend (B25), and at least 76% when running on 100% biomethane (B100).
 
The testing showed that gas vehicles emit similar levels of NOx as their diesel comparators. However, these pollutant levels were generally low for both gas and diesel because all trial vehicles comply with Euro VI standards.
 
This was the first UK study to assess the performance of in-service and tested vehicles which are all Euro VI factory-fitted OEM gas vehicles. The trial drivers from the project fleets reported that gas vehicles perform better than diesel comparators in engine noise, vibration, overall drive comfort, engine braking and environmental performance.
 
Steve Carroll, head of transport at Cenex, said: “This is an exciting time for the gas truck industry: after a decade of hard work, the UK are now in a position where there is a wide variety of OEM gas trucks and clean renewable biomethane available from public refuelling stations.
 
"This project proved the economic, environmental and operational case for gas trucks powered by biomethane. With around 80% well-to-wheel CO2 reduction from diesel, this proven technology can provide a significant in-road to meeting our net-zero targets and Cenex now look forward to assisting fleets in making the switch.”

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