Consortium Aims to Stimulate Greater Adoption of Natural Gas Trucks Across Europe

A consortium called BioLNG EuroNet announced a commitment to the further expansion of LNG as a road transport fuel across Europe with new infrastructure that should ensure the long-term success and mass scale adoption.

The consortium, comprising Shell, Disa, Scania, Osomo and Iveco will each deliver separate activities that will see 2,000 more LNG trucks on the road, 39 LNG fueling stations and the construction of a BioLNG production plant in the Netherlands.

The LNG Retail stations will form part of a pan-European network and be built in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. The stations will be located approximately every 250 miles along core road network corridors from Spain to Eastern Poland.

“LNG is an increasingly affordable fuel for heavy goods vehicles which will make it an important energy source as the transport sector evolves,” said Istvάn Kapitάny, Executive Vice President, Shell Retail. “Shell is committed to offering our customers more lower carbon energy and the new LNG Retail stations are a vital piece of the puzzle. I look forward to seeing this important network of stations welcome European motorists in the years to come.”

The bioLNG facility to be constructed in the Netherlands will collect municipal waste from supermarkets and restaurants and process this into biogas. The technology will use new patented membrane separation technology that will enable biologically derived LNG.

The 2,000 new LNG Heavy Goods Vehicles will be leased to end users through competitive financing and trucking solutions to reduce the cost of them. Only the additional costs of an LNG truck compared to a diesel truck will be financed. The average eligible costs for each LNG truck are capped to a maximum of approximately $34,000.