From the American continent, there has been registered: the United States, Canada, Argentina, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela. From the Orient region, there are visitors from China, Korea, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Australia.
In the second day of the Show, the attendance has been continuously renewed so far. However, it is worth mentioning the presence of German and Italian representatives.
The course of the workshops is being developed actively and massively. The Palais am Funkturm hall houses market experiences, technologies and challenges remarks summarized in the speeches delivered by experts and industry leaders.
Workshop 1 – The voices of OEMs
Three full hours of presentations, comments and questions on the issue ‘European Challenges vs Global Opportunities – The Perspective of International OEMs on CNG’ took place on Tuesday afternoon during the first NGV2011 Berlin workshop.
This thematic conference was moderated by Markus Rudolf, on behalf of erdgas mobil Managing Director Timm Kehler. The speaker’s list included: Daimler AG, Company Strategist Manfred Schuckert, who spoke about “CNG and Biogas in the context of worldwide CO2 and fuel economy regulations;” Marco Verrienti, Fiat Germany Marketing Manager; Giuliano Giovannini, Product Marketing Manager of Iveco; Muriel Desaeger, Senior Principal Technologist Energy Research Group of Toyota; Tobias Blase, Area Sales Manager Europe of Volkswagen; Fredrik Bohlin, Business Manager, Distribution & Alternative Fuels of Volvo Trucks Corporation; and Victor Saenz-Vota, IAV Inc., Senior Engineer / Alternative Fuels
Workshop 2 – LNG, the immediate alternative for road transport
How to make sure that LNG can become a viable and attractive option for consumers all over the world? This is the issue discussed by the panel that met on Wednesday morning. NGVA Europe chairman Trevor Fletcher acted as the facilitator and introduced the speakers, who illustrated their experiences in promoting LNG in different countries.
Lennart Pilskog (Volvo Truck Corporation) and Tula Ekengren (FordonsGas Sverige AB) focused on the Swedish market situation, whereas Philippe Heisch (Cryostar) talked about LNG supply chain facts and challenges for road transportation. Bernat Vidal-Rivas (Ros Roca Cryo Energy Business Development) showed the complete chain on the LNG/LBG as a fuel and recalled the experience of the company in the Netherlands. Vittorio Zurletti (Vanzetti Engineering) talked about the services provided by the company. Claus Emmer (Chart Industries) underlined the need to make LNG fuelling system as “simple as any other, safe, efficient and economically viable” and explained how this has been achieved in the United States. Finally, before a long session of Questions and Answers, Nicholas Sonntag (Westport Innovations) explained how LNG can be “an immediate alternative for truck transportation in Europe.”
Workshop 3 – Biomethane
Biomethane, the way forward to achieve a swift reduction of greenhouse gases in the transport sector was the theme discussed during the second panel on Wednesday. Michele Ziosi, Head of the institutional relations for Fiat in Rome and director of the Italian Natural Gas Vehicles Association, was the facilitator of this debate.
Representative of the Mobility and Transport DG of the European Commission Antonio Tricas commented the various policies that Brussels is setting to make transport sustainable. Antonio Fuganti (director of the research centre of Fiat) spoke about the Renewable fuels as opportunity for territory development. Besides that, Timm Kehler pointed out: “We need to show what the future will be and not to describe natural gas as a bridge technology.” Karen Hamberg (Westport Innovation) gave an overview of renewable natural gas in North America and stressed how it is “maybe the only carbon neutral fuel for the transport sector”. Finally, Luana Grimolizzi (Gruppo Sapio) spoke about the impact of hydrogen and natural gas blends as fuels for urban vehicle fleets.
