CNG Fuels to open world’s largest biomethane refuelling station

CNG Fuels will open the world’s largest public access biomethane refuelling station for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) near Bristol, UK.

The new station, due to open by the end of the year, will allow fleet operators to run their vehicles on low-carbon fuel, support net-zero plans, and save money.

Construction has begun on the station in Avonmouth, near the M4/M5 junction, and will serve the busiest freight routes in the UK. It will be capable of refuelling 80 HGVs per hour from 14 high-speed dispensers and joins six existing refuelling stations already operational across the UK, from Inverness in Scotland to Cornwall in South West England.

Major brands that will use the station in Avonmouth to reduce transport emissions include Warburtons, Farm Foods, Hermes, and regional water utility, Wessex Water.

“Switching our HGV fleet from diesel to biomethane will be critical in reaching our transport decarbonisation goals,” said Steven Gray, Warburtons’s national transport manager.

“CNG Fuels’s new low-carbon refuelling station in Avonmouth is perfectly situated for our distribution centres in the region and will extend the range of low-carbon deliveries we can make across the country.”

100% of the fuel supplied by CNG Fuels is renewable and sustainable biomethane, approved under the Department for Transport’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) scheme.

Renewable biomethane is the lowest carbon, most cost-effective alternative to diesel for HGVs, said CNG Fuels; it is 35-40% cheaper and cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 85-90%. From 2022, CNG fuels will dispense fully carbon-neutral fuel by sourcing biomethane from manure. The gas is currently sourced from waste feedstocks, such as food waste.

Philip Fjeld, CEO of CNG Fuels, said: “Avonmouth is a key site for CNG Fuels’s expansion across the UK. The site will allow companies to use low-carbon fuel for regular routes between London, the Midlands, South Wales, Cornwall, and Devon.

“Such a strategically crucial location requires our biggest fuelling station yet. This station will enable even more fleet operators and hauliers to reduce their carbon emissions and save money.”

HGVs account for 4.2% of UK carbon emissions, so decarbonising the sector is essential to meet the UK’s net-zero goals. Demand for the fuel from fleet operators is already growing at around 100% per annum, said CNG, with the company forecasting that this will continue to accelerate, and that by 2025 around 10% of the UK’s high-mileage HGV fleet will be running on bio-CNG.”