In brief

The European Union’s statistical office (Eurostat) announced that the EU has met its target of using 10 percent renewable energy in the transport sector by 2020. Eurostat data show that the average share of energy from renewable sources in transport increased from 1.6 percent in 2004 to 10.2 percent in 2020, slightly above the target. This share includes electricity from renewable sources, but also biogas and liquid biofuels. It would be logical for all of these solutions to be promoted equally to ensure that the share of renewable energy in the transport sector continues to grow. However, the exclusive focus on electricity and the current tail pipe approach to CO₂ emissions means that alternative fuels with equal or sometimes even better greenhouse gas footprints are not currently considered. In this context, the share of biogas in the transport sector is significantly higher than the share of green electricity. Data from NGVA Europe shows that more than a quarter of the gas used in road transport today is renewable and that as of December 2020, 3810 CNG stations across Europe were already supplying biogas to European consumers.

Snam4Mobility, a subsidiary of the Italian energy infrastructure group Snam, and OrangeGas, a Dutch company that owns and operates sustainable fuel stations in the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden, will work more closely together in the future. They have signed an agreement to develop a new bio-LCNG filling station – not a spelling mistake, but the station will offer both compressed and liquefied biogas – in Paderborn, Germany. This agreement is for “The cooperation with Snam4Mobility is a big step forward to further expand our Bio-LNG and Bio-CNG network in Germany,” explains Wijtze Bakker, Head Network Development Europe at OrangeGas. Four new Bio-LCNG stations are scheduled to open in Germany in 2022, and a total of twenty filling stations in the next three years. In addition, OrangeGas will offer 100 bio-CNG at all its CNG filling stations and only 100 per cent bio-LNG at its LNG filling stations from the beginning of 2023. “With this agreement, we are launching an important partnership to contribute to the decarbonisation of light and heavy duty transport in Germany by leveraging our expertise in building and managing refuelling stations and combining our strengths with those of OrangeGas along the biomethane value chain,” explains Alessio Torelli, Chief Executive Officer of Snam4Mobility.

The navigation software group Here is taking over a software tool developed by Migros together with Empa and making it available worldwide. The tool can be used to calculate the CO₂ emissions of trucks with different drive systems for any route. This makes it possible to show logistics companies worldwide on which routes which type of drive should be used. With the help of the software, the use of trucks with alternative drive systems and renewable fuels such as hydrogen, electricity, biogas and biodiesel can be analyzed in terms of performance, range, payload and costs for individual routes, while at the same time calculating the CO₂ savings to be expected in real terms compared to diesel trucks. Thanks to a link to life cycle assessment databases, synthetic fuels can also be integrated. The ISO- and DIN-certified software has already been in use at Migros for several months under the name “M Opex Tower”. As the Here Group announced at the CES technology trade fair in Las Vegas at the beginning of January, it will be included in Here’s software program with immediate effect under the name “CO₂ Insights”. In this way, Migros and Empa know-how will become available to logistics service providers from all over the world. Until March 31, 2022, the software can be used and evaluated free of charge by all Here customers.

In the Frutigland biogas plant, the sewage sludge from the neighboring Frutigen WWTP, the Kandersteg WWTP, the fish filter sludge from the Tropical House and the Blausee fish farm, as well as food waste from restaurants and retirement homes in the region are fermented into biogas. The two integrated combined heat and power plants convert the biogas into heat and electricity. Some of the biogas is upgraded to CNG and can be refueled on site. “Ingenious and well thought out down to the last detail”, is how the jury of the Bernese Oberland Innovation Award described the project, which obtains fuel from regional residual materials, thus closing energy cycles and enabling almost CO₂-neutral mobility thanks to biogas. The initiators of the biogas filling station at the biogas plant Frutigland GmbH (BGAF) around Pius Allenbach (not in the picture), Samuel Moser and Niklaus Hari are happy about the award and believe in the huge potential of biogas in Switzerland. Niklaus Hari comments, “95 percent of farmyard manure in Switzerland is not yet fermented and used for energy today.” According to Hari, the fermentation of all domestic farmyard manure could achieve 2.5 times the output of the Gösgen nuclear power plant. Frutigen, with its large livestock population, is predestined for this type of energy production, but it is also seen as an opportunity for other regions. There is no lack of knowledge or technology, nor is there any possibility of buying suitable CNG-powered vehicles off the shelf. Click here for the video.