Grupo Ham of Spain has opened its 100th liquefied natural gas filling station and now operates around 25 percent of existing facilities in Europe for LNG-powered trucks and other vehicles.
The Ham group said the latest LNG filling station was opened in Saint Quentin Fallavier in southeast France, reaffirming its leading role in the vehicular natural gas sector in the European Union and elsewhere.
The company’s network of LNG and compressed natural gas (CNG) facilities is expanding in a growing number of countries with more than 30 in Spain and the others spread around the EU with most of them located in Spain, France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands.
Ham has also established an LNG-CNG foothold in South America with filling stations in Chile and Peru.
“A report from the Association of Natural Gas and Biogas Vehicles, noted that in Europe there are 400 service stations that allow LNG refuelling and on one in four of facilities have been designed, built and commissioned by HAM, many of them being owned by us and forming part our network of service stations,” said the company.
Ham has also started developing networks in the newer entrants to the EU such as the Czech Republic, Finland, Poland and Slovakia, as well as non-EU countries like the UK and Switzerland.
“HAM as a trucking company as well was a pioneer in Spain in 2000 when it added to its fleet of 10 trucks, acquired in the US and powered by LNG, taking on a major environmental challenge with the aim of reducing polluting emissions and also building the first vehicular LNG plant in Europe for the refuelling of these vehicles,” explained the Barcelona-based company.
“Later, in 2009 we designed and built the first public vehicular natural gas service station in Spain, located in Abrera, Barcelona,” it added.
“We continue to bet on Vehicular Natural Gas, a rapidly developing market with great potential to achieve the decarbonisation of road transport,” stated Ham.
The company is also developing new concepts of fixed and mobile service stations, allowing easier expansion of the network.
Ham is also committed to adopting bio-LNG made from waste and will make more of it available over time.
“At Grupo HAM we continue to work and innovate, always working in direct contact with our customers, to offer the best products and services that adapt to their real energy needs,” declared the company.
