UK to host world's biggest bio-CNG filling station
UK fuel retailer CNG Fuels is planning to launch the world's largest bio-compressed natural gas (bio-CNG) filling station near Bristol this year, the company said on May 14.
Construction has begun on the public access station, which will serve heavy good vehicles (HGVs) near the M4/M5 junction in Avonmouth. It will refuel up to 80 HGVs an hour from 14 dispensers, enabling fleet operators to "deploy low-carbon deliveries from Inverness all the way down to Cornwall," CNG Fuels said.
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CNG Fuels already has six bio-CNG stations in operation in the UK, and plans to open 14 more by the end of 2022. NGW reported in April that the firm had broken ground on Scotland's first bio-CNG station. CNG Fuels' expansion plans are backed up by £80mn ($113mn) in funding from a partnership with Foresight Group.
"Avonmouth is a key site for CNG Fuels’ expansion across the UK," CNG Fuels CEO Philip Fjeld said in a statement. "The site will allow companies to use low-carbon fuel for regular routes between London, the Midlands, South Wales, Cornwall and Devon. Such a strategically crucial location requires our biggest refuelling station yet. This station will enable even more fleet operators and hauliers to reduce their carbon emissions and save money."
A NGW interview with Fjeld can be read here.
CNG Fuels secures biomethane from manure that might otherwise have escaped into the atmosphere. As such, the EU's revised Renewable Energy Directive recognises the gas as a carbon negative fuel, and the UK is expected to adopt the same rules next year. The firm also sees itself as well placed to support battery electric and low-carbon hydrogen fuel for HGVs in the future, it said. The UK Committee on Climate Change expects the two options to play a major role in decarbonising freight transport from 2030 onwards.
"The company is consulting on how its stations can best accommodate these technologies when they become commercially viable," CNG Fuels said.