Gasrec’s £1m UK facility upgrade to support biogas refuelling

Gasrec has completed a £1 million (€1.1 million) upgrade to its flagship refuelling facility in Northampton, UK, to meet the growing demand of transport operators making the switch to bio-LNG and bio-CNG.

New fuel dispensers, new supply lines, and a new fuel management system have been installed at the Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT), along with greater remote operability for the site, which can refuel up to 700 trucks per day.

Gasrec has also introduced fuel cards to provide better information to its customers and prepare for the expansion of its station network.

“This investment reinforces our confidence in the growing demand for trucks running on renewable biomethane, which now represent nearly 5% of all our new tractor unit registrations in the UK,” said Rob Wood, chief executive of Gasrec.

“We have seen a huge influx of new customers at DIRFT over the course of 2020. This demand has also led us to invest in our supply chain and more than double the number of LNG road tankers in our fleet.

“These latest upgrades will ensure DIRFT continues to hit our strict targets for safety, sustainability, refuelling speed and uptime, plus it means we are best positioned to refuel the latest generations of vehicles.”

Gasrec projects that one-third of the UK’s 44-tonne heavy truck market will have transitioned to natural gas within the next seven years, with approximately 39,000 gas-powered HGVs on UK roads.

James Westcott, the company’s chief commercial officer, said: “Just two and a half years ago, there were no real UK-spec gas trucks available, but following launches by three of the big manufacturers, we’re now seeing exponential growth.

“We are already supplying double the volume of gas we were back in January 2020, and that’s after volumes shot up in 2019, too.

“Over the next few months, we’re going to be supporting hundreds of new gas trucks coming on the market, as businesses look to build back from the pandemic greener and stronger.”

Bio-CNG and bio-LNG-powered trucks can return CO₂ savings of as high as 95%, and deliver a 99% reduction in particulate matter and 90% in nitrogen dioxide emissions compared to Euro VI diesel trucks.