LNG

Clean Energy Fuels Corp., the largest provider of renewable natural gas (RNG) made from waste for the trucking market, has opened a huge filling station that will provide 1.4 million gallons of RNG annually for online retailer Amazon and other truck fleets in the greater Chicago area.

“The addition of the Romeoville station to our fuelling network represents another step in the pathway for Amazon to realize significant carbon reduction for its transportation fleets,” said Chad Lindholm, senior vice president of Clean Energy.

“Trucks that operate on diesel are incredibly harmful to the air we breathe. Renewable natural gas is a viable solution that provides immediate benefits and as such this station will mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions in the Chicago area,” added Lindholm.

Clean Energy is already investing in the production of RNG with two European partners, TotalEnergies of France and BP of the UK, at dairies throughout the Midwest.

“The RNG produced at these dairies and others around the country will flow into the Romeoville station and Clean Energy’s nationwide fuelling infrastructure,” said the company, based in Newport Beach, California.

Acreage

Clean Energy said that the Romeoville station spans 8.2 acres and includes multiple public access fast-fill dispensers for easy in-and-out fuelling of RNG.

It has time-fill posts for up to 152 trucks, allowing for cost-effective fuelling and the most advanced technology transmitting real-time data to customers. It also has 153 parking places for personal vehicles.

“This multi-million-dollar station gives the thousands of heavy-duty trucking fleets that operate throughout the busy Chicago area the ability to fuel with a clean, renewable and sustainable fuel,” said Romeoville Mayor John Noak.

“We’re pleased that fleets that operate in Romeoville will now have the option to use RNG fuel,” he added.

Located at 300 Southcreek Parkway, the Romeoville station is part of an agreement between Clean Energy and Amazon for Clean Energy to build 19 stations nationwide.

The station initially will fuel more than 100 Amazon trucks and is designed with sufficient fuelling capacity to accommodate several hundred more trucks. 

Italian natural gas network operator Snam, one of Europe’s leading energy infrastructure companies and operator of two liquefied natural gas import terminals, is bringing more LNG fuel to the Eternal City with the opening of two additional filling stations in Rome.

Snam, whose name comes from Societa Nazionale Metanodotti (National Pipeline Company), operates the Italian gas grid and two LNG import terminals, the “FSRU Toscana”, moored 22 kilometres off the Italian coast between the cities of Livorno and Pisa, and the onshore Panigaglia facility near the port of Genoa.

The new Rome fillings stations were opened by Snam subsidiary Snam4Mobility in partnership with two fuel distribution operators.

They are located at via di Torre Spaccata and in via di Tor Cervara and Snam said they strengthened the growing supply of natural gas as a preferred and cleaner alternative fuel for vehicles.

“Snam’s 2020-2024 strategic plan envisages the construction of 150 new natural gas and bio-methane refuelling stations and the launch of the first five hydrogen refuelling stations,” said the Italian company.

The station in via di Torre Spaccata is already equipped to supply Bio-LNG, liquefied biomethane obtained from organic waste, and now has conventional LNG.

“The refuelling station in via di Torre Spaccata is managed by Goldengas, a company that has been active for over 50 years in the supply of fuel, and the facility is the fifth in the Lazio area of Rome to supply LNG for heavy vehicles,” said Snam.

The distribution point in via di Tor Cervara is managed by Enerpetroli, a company active for 30 years in the distribution of fuels in four regions of Central Italy, with 130 own-brand and Esso-branded stations.

The station built by Snam4Mobility for Enerpetroli, the second of nine provided under an agreement between the two companies, is the 80th in the region to also supply compressed natural gas (CNG).

“As part of the agreement, Snam4Mobility and Enerpetroli will also create new distributors in the region of Umbria,” said Snam.

The openings of the stations were celebrated by staged drive-in and re-fuelling demonstrations for LNG and CNG-powered truck and vehicle models such as Italian-made small vans and scooter-vans from manufacturer Piaggio SpA.

Other LNG and CNG-powered vehicles were displayed and refilled by Italian truck maker IVECO, while Spanish car manufacturer SEAT had its best-selling CNG-powered sports utility vehicle on show.

“The new openings are part of the commitment of Snam4Mobility to provide integrated services for sustainable ‘smart green’ natural gas and biomethane mobility for heavy transport throughout Italy,” stated the company.

July 3 (LNGJ) - Finnish state-owned energy company Gasum, which has widespread gas assets in the Nordic region, has opened a new filling station for LNG and biogas distribution at Lieto in southwest Finland. This is the country’s eighth natural gas filling station for trucks.

   Gasum has another 15 LNG and biogas stations in Sweden and one in Norway located in the capital Oslo. “Together with the gas filling station in Turku Harbor, the new station in Lieto strengthens the distribution of LNG and liquefied biogas for the needs of long-haul transport,” said Gasum.

Renergen, a South African helium and clean fuel developer with a planned small-scale plant for liquefied natural gas, has signed an agreement for the joint marketing and distribution of domestic LNG through the filling stations of French major Total.

HAM Group, the Spanish natural gas and LNG fuel and transportation company, has widened its filling station network for trucks and automobiles by opening a new facility in province of Albacete, a key crossroads between the centre and the east of the Iberian Peninsula.

Gasum, the natural gas company of Finland, posted annual pre-tax profits little changed from the previous year even as the value of liquefied natural gas sales increased by 29 percent because of higher oil prices.