Most of England and Wales is already within a 300-mile round trip of a biomethane refuelling station and the new facility will put Inverness and Aberdeen within this range.
Warburtons, the UK’s largest bakery brand, is the latest major name to announce it is adopting biomethane, following companies such as Hermes, John Lewis, Waitrose and Asda.
The new station, at the Eurocentral industrial estate off the M8 near Bellshill, is due to open in November. CNG Fuels customers with depots on or close to the estate include Warburtons and parcel delivery company Hermes, which already runs 90 gas trucks.
Steven Gray, Warburtons national transport manager, said: “After extensive alternative-fuel vehicle trials, Warburtons has chosen CNG technology, and specifically biomethane fuel, as our preferred strategy to decarbonise our Primary HGV fleet. CNG Fuels’ progressive Bio-CNG Station roll-out plans across the UK will allow us to begin our decarbonisation strategy and the Eurocentral refuelling facility is a key location for our fleet.”
CNG Fuels currently operates six refuelling stations in England and is building out a strategic network on major routes. Eurocentral is the first of 14 further stations that are due to be built over the next two years, with £80 million of funding from a new partnership with Foresight Group, including two more in Scotland near Larkhall and Livingston.
100% of the fuel supplied by CNG Fuels is renewable and sustainable biomethane, approved under the Department for Transport’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) scheme.
Bio-CNG is currently sourced from food waste but CNG Fuels is securing supplies of gas derived from manure to create a fuel that will be carbon neutral overall. It expects to introduce carbon neutral biomethane across from 2022 at the same price.
Manure gives off methane, a greenhouse gas 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Using methane as an HGV fuel prevents it from going into the atmosphere and reduces overall emissions. The EU’s revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) recognises biomethane from manure as a carbon negative fuel, and the UK is expected to adopt the same rules in 2022.