06 February 2014 - Arla Foods has opened a dedicated bio-LNG (liquefied natural gas) refuelling station at its new £150m dairy complex at Aylesbury – set to become the UK's first zero carbon dairy – to support its move towards fleet-wide dual-fuel truck conversion. LNG and bio-LNG specialist Gasrec provided the filling station under a strategic partnership deal with Arla Foods, aimed at slashing its trucks' carbon emissions as part of the latter's target of a 25% reduction by 2020.
Arla plans to convert its entire fleet of vehicles to dual-fuel, and the first 10 converted HGVs (mostly Volvo trucks with the Clean Air Power dual-fuel conversion) are now running on bio-LNG. Next up will be Arla's outbound logistics, running Euro 5 Renault trucks and the Prins conversions.
Under the deal, Gasrec is supplying bio-LNG as well as the refuelling station infrastructure, with delivery volumes matched to the growing number of trucks converted to use it.
"Arla are pleased to have Gasrec as a business partner," states Steve Wright logistics project facilitator for Arla Foods. "We look forward to developing our bio-LNG refuelling infrastructure at Aylesbury and are confident that Gasrec are in an ideal position to deliver."
"Sustainability and green issues are critical to Arla Foods and it is a pleasure to be helping such an enlightened company to develop strategies for reducing both cost and carbon emissions from their transport operations," comments Ben Sawford, Gasrec's chief commercial officer.
"As our network and operations expand further, I am confident many other companies will see the rewards of converting HGV fleets to bio-fuels – benefiting both the environment and their balance sheets."
Author
Brian Tinham
See more at: Transportengineer.org.uk
