Last Wednesday (Nov 23rd) saw the opening of the Greater Stockholm region’s first refuelling station for liquefied methane gas, LNG/LBG. The filling station, Statoil Järna, is part of the BiMe Trucks project in which Volvo Trucks is one of the participating companies along with AGA, which supplies the liquefied gas. One of the project’s focus areas is to build the necessary infrastructure for liquefied methane gas in Sweden.
In October 2010, Sweden’s first filling station for liquefied methane gas was opened at Stigs Center in Gothenburg. The project also encompasses the establishment of LNG stations in Malmö and Jönköping, but there are plans for additional stations to keep pace with the increase in demand.
At the opening ceremony in Stockholm, Volvo Trucks displayed a number of FM MethaneDiesel trucks powered by the 13-litre engine designed for gas which runs on a combination of biogas and diesel.
“It’s immensely important that the refuelling network for liquefied methane gas expands in order to secure development of our methane-diesel technology. The new filling station is a very important step in that direction,” says Lennart Pilskog, Director Public Affairs, Volvo Truck Corporation.
On the same day a seminar was also held in Stockholm as part of the CleanTruck project, in which Volvo Trucks was one of the participants. Together with its customers, Volvo displayed MethaneDiesel trucks from the FL, FE and FM ranges. In addition, the wraps came off a Ragn-Sells Volvo FE electric-diesel hybrid truck that will operate in the Stockholm area.
Among the various activities available, the participants had the chance to test-drive the trucks. At the seminar, the drivers who use these vehicles on a daily basis were given the opportunity to provide feedback and share their hands-on experiences.
Since early summer this year Volvo has been running an FE MethaneDiesel distribution truck between supermarket chain Lidl’s central Swedish warehouse in Eskilstuna and the company’s stores in Stockholm. The truck, which is part of the CleanTruck project, transports 450 tonnes of organic food-based refuse every year. This refuse is processed in a digester plant and then converted into biogas. The same customer is now also deploying an FM MethaneDiesel truck that will run on LNG.
The aim of CleanTruck is to establish filling stations for renewable truck fuels and to test and demonstrate new types of environmentally sustainable trucks for climate-friendly transportation throughout Sweden. The project covers a four-year period from 2010 to 2013.
