CNG Fuels opens tenth UK biomethane refuelling station for heavy goods lorries

Biomethane supplier CNG Fuels has officially opened its tenth heavy-goods vehicle (HGV) re-fuelling station in the UK today, with the new Castleford site in West Yorkshire bringing the firm’s total re-fuelling capability up to 5,000 HGVs across the country daily, it announced today.

The new station on the Normanton Industrial Estate can fill up as many as 500 HGVs each day with the low carbon fuel, potentially cutting up to 67,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year, which is the equivalent of removing 40,000 cars from UK roads annually, CNG Fuels said.

The Castleford refuelling station is now the company’s tenth operational site. Other sites located across the country include a public access biomethane refuelling station in Avonmouth near Bristol, which CNG Fuels claims is the largest of its kind in the UK.

CNG Fuels also plans to open a further ten biomethane refuelling stations for heavy goods lorries by the end of next year, with construction already underway at new sites in Newton Aycliffe and Corby.  

In total, CNG Fuels now estimates that it can save 1,600 tonnes of CO2 every day from the biomethane used at its refilling sites as a replacement for petrol or diesel fuel. or 584,000 tonnes of CO2 annually when compared to diesel, which is the equivalent to powering over 113,000 homes for an entire year.

HGVs account for 4.2 per cent of UK carbon emissions, making the sector a key are to decarbonise if the UK is to achieve its goal of net zero emissions by 2050, according to the Department for Transport, 

Last year, the UK government announced plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel HGV from 2040, which CNG said has “heightened the urgency for fleets across the country to find alternative solutions to petrol and diesel HGVs.”

CNG Fuels said that most of the UK is already within a 300-mile round trip of one of its re-fuelling stations with its latest opening adding Leeds, Hull and Wakefield within its range which will serve local and passing fleets using the M1, A1 and M18. It added that it hoped its new site would serve both existing CNG Fuels customers as well as new fleet operators access to low carbon biomethane.

“Fleet operators around the world are urgently seeking ways to cut emissions from their fleets,” said Philip Fjeld, CEO at CNG Fuels. “In the UK, fleet operators can do so today by adopting biomethane. Our fast-growing network of refuelling infrastructure has made biomethane more accessible than ever before, and fleets – ranging from local hauliers through to major household brands – are dramatically cutting emissions every day. Our newest station in Castleford is building on our existing network, enabling low carbon deliveries all the way from Inverness to Cornwall.”

According to CNG Fuels, around 10 per cent of the UK’s high-mileage HGV fleet is expected to run on its biomethane – dubbed Bio-CNG – by 2025. The company said there had been a rapid growth in demand since the beginning of this year, including an increase in orders of 6×2 Iveco trials – a biomethane fuelled HGV which will soon be launched to the market.

CNG also said that it had seen an uptick in household brands looking to adopt bio-CNG. Supermarket Aldi recently announced its commitment to move to bio-CNG HGVs in order to cut emissions from its fleet and process more low carbon deliveries. Aldi’s national corporate responsibility director Liz Fix said that the supermarket plans to use the new site in Castleford to accelerate this change.

“Aldi is committed to reducing our carbon footprint, and adopting bio-CNG HGVs is another step forward in our plans to cut emissions from our UK fleets,” she said.  “CNG Fuels’ latest station in Castleford opens the door to major transport networks into the North East, and their growing network will only continue to extend the number of low carbon deliveries that we can make across the country every day.”

Existing CNG Fuel customers including Royal Mail, Waitrose and Warburtons are also expected to make use of the new site.

In addition to biomethane, CNG Fuels said it is also considering options for hydrogen fuel trials across its portfolio in order to ensure that its stations are able to support multiple fuel options as new technologies develop and become more commercially viable.

It said that it will begin its first hydrogen trials this year and that by 2025 it plans to allocate around 100 acres of its land to public access hydrogen refuelling.