Partnered to promote bioLNG, Shell and Iveco launched a one-year pilot project in July 2021 with DHL Freight and the Edeka Minden-Hannover cooperative. Objective: to prove the effectiveness of bioLNG in greening urban and long-distance transport. Iveco provided each of the operators with three Iveco Stralis or S-Way Naturel Power. These models are equipped with a 460 hp Cursor engine. They carry 390 kg of bioLNG for a range of 1,600 km. The LNG market is booming in Germany with 48,000 metric tons sold in 2020. Similarly, 84 service stations offered LNG in 2021. And bioLNG constitutes more than 87% of orders for clean heavy goods vehicles.
87 t of CO2 saved in five months
The trial conducted by DHL Freight covers transport of 1,080 km between the pump factory of its Danish customer Grundfos, in Bjerringbro, and Longeville-Les-Saint-Avold (57), in France. In five months, DHL’s LNG-powered Ivecos have covered 89,900 km. They emitted “87 t less carbon emissions than a diesel truck,” reports Uwe Brinks, CEO of DHL Freight. For DHL Freight, sustainable fuel solutions like BioLNG are an important lever to change the energy mix. And also to reduce our CO emissions2 in road transport by 50% by 2025.”
Edeka wants to reduce pollution in city centers
Member of the Edeka supermarket cooperative, Edeka Minden-Hannover already used 10 Iveco Stralis NP and 40 Iveco S-Way CNG. “The conversion of our fleet, the backbone of our logistics activities, is an essential lever for reducing our carbon footprint. Our vehicles are driven mainly in very polluted city centers, explains Thomas Steinlein, its director of fleet and transport management. With bioLNG, we are significantly reducing this level of pollution. The exclusive use of bioLNG would be a big step towards our goal of zero emissions. »
Shell Germany promotes BioLNG in Northern Europe
In the Shell-Iveco project, Shell provides Edeka and DHL with bioLNG. This biofuel is produced from agricultural waste by its BioLNG Nordsol plant. The energy company thus wishes to supply bioLNG to the whole of Germany. And he undertook “to build a plant in Cologne to produce 100,000 t of bioLNG from slurry. This would reduce the carbon emissions generated by long-distance transport by 1 million tonnes”, explains the general manager of Shell Germany, Fabian Ziegler.
To compensate for Russian fossil gas import restrictions, Shell has also signed an agreement with German LNG Terminal. The latter is building an LNG import and distribution terminal. And this, in order to have two reservoirs of 165,000 m3 of LNG. The energy company will mix this fossil LNG with its own bioLNG. He will compensate for the use of this mixture by carbon offset certificates credited to his Shell LNG card and which he will charge 0.01 euro per liter to his customers.
