In a commitment to sustainable mobility, the Zaragoza Area Transport Consortium presented the first Scania biomethane-powered bus, which will be operated by the transport company Grupo Aragón Tours for the Consortium’s line 210 that runs between Zaragoza and Villamayor de Gállego. Naturgy will be the company in charge of supplying biomethane through Grupo Industrial Calvera’s virtual gas pipeline, which will be transported to the point of refueling.
The pilot project is based on the production, transport and vehicle use of renewable gas and contributes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals established in terms of decarbonization, circular economy, diversification and energy independence. Biomethane comes from a Naturgy production plant in Vila Sana (Lleida) and is obtained from the purification of biogas produced by anaerobic digestion of pig slurry generated in the annexed farm. This circumstance allows a great environmental benefit by taking advantage of the waste to produce the energy that moves the bus.
With this project, Calvera starts up the first virtual biomethane gas pipeline in Spain, which integrates 10 gas storage modules on a specifically developed trailer. In addition to storing the fuel at high pressure (250 bar) and transporting it from the generation plant to the point of consumption, Calvera’s NG TRUCK allows dispensing it to the Scania vehicle that is going to use it under the required conditions. This system also enables the future possibility of scaling or expanding the consumption flow, as well as allowing a distributed use of biomethane, carrying out the substitution of fossil fuels in several fleets or points of refueling.
The Scania bus can be propelled indistinctly by CNG or biomethane, it offers 340CV and an automatic gearbox that is a market leader with more than 1,000 units circulating in Spain. The vehicle has an aluminum body with numerous security and accessibility systems and can be configured as a Midibus, whose reduced and efficient size allows it to move through the center of a large city or with large and accessible platforms of 12m, 15m and 18m capable of operate within cities, on commuter consortium lines, or even on long-distance lines with up to 800km of range.
In addition, Scania’s new generation CNG engines provide 50% noise reduction during all hours of operation and thanks to the implementation of biomethane, the carbon footprint can be reduced by up to 83% and provide profitability and solution to the management of wastewater, MSW and livestock waste.
“Sustainability and a commitment to the environment is one of the strategic axes of our company, at Scania we are concerned about offering a sustainable, smarter and more profitable transport for our clients’ businesses. This transport with biomethane opens the door to a reality in our country that others in Europe have already been developing for more than a decade. We are sure that it will be the first case of many,” said Manuel Arias, head of sustainability at Scania.
Source: Scania
