Coca-Cola completes successfully the trial of a biomethane truck and releases report

Biomethane vehicle operation reduced NOx and PM emissions by 85.6% and 97.1% respectively. It also achieved a 50.3 per cent saving in well-to-wheel GHG emissions, compared to the diesel truck, which was accomplished using a temporary filling station (a more efficient permanent station being installed at the CCE depot raises the GHG saving to 60.7 per cent). Additionally, operating the vehicle on biogas reduced the fuel costs by 12.8 per cent.

“The success of this trial shows NGVs provide similar if not better, drive performance and reliability levels than incumbent diesel technologies, while significantly reducing CO2 emissions. By releasing the report findings we hope to eliminate the need for repeated technology comparisons within fleets, thereby reducing the time required to deploy natural gas commercial vehicles throughout the UK. The report therefore gives fleet managers and decision makers the confidence to deploy gas vehicles in their own fleet operations,” said Chris Walsh, head of technical support and consultancy at Cenex.

Following the successful trial, CCE will launch a fleet of 14 biomethane powered Iveco Stralis vehicles and a natural gas station due to be fully operational at the Enfield depot from June 2012, for the London Olympics. The new CCE fleet will consume approximately 168 tones of biomethane saving over 300 tones of CO2, 1590 kgs of NOx and 33 kgs PM of emissions per annum. Additionally, CCE trialed an LPG fork lift truck converted to operate on biomethane at Enfield, which achieved a 71 per cent well-to-wheel CO2 saving.

Source: Cenex