In Sweden, Nordic home appliances and electronics retail major Elgiganten along with Finland-headed gas major Gasum Oy and Volvo Trucks are now entering a testing period in which Elgiganten’s transport partners will run the outgoing transport from Elgiganten’s Nordic distribution centre in Jönköping on liquified biogas (LBG). Elgiganten’s new transport procurement agreement in spring 2020 will include demands that a share of the vehicle fleet runs on fossil-free fuels of which LBG is an option.
According to Gasum, a contributing factor is the company’s investment in a Nordic network of stations for liquefied gas, with a total of 50 stations up to and including 2020, of which one will be located in Torsvik, outside Jönköping close to Elgiganten’s Nordic distribution centre.
We are happy that companies like Elgiganten are taking the lead on sustainable transport. With liquefied gas, there is great potential to reduce the emissions within the transport sector, said Mikael Antonsson, Country Manager Traffic at Gasum.
Reduces emissions and contributes to a circular economy
Elgiganten has chosen to partner with Volvo Trucks and Gasum for the testing period in which Elgiganten’s transport partners will test and drive transport from the distribution centre in Jönköping to different retail outlets and home delivery hubs in the Nordic countries on liquified biogas (LBG). The planned route is to initially run back and forth to Oslo, Norway.
Testing biogas for transport is important for us in order to take the next step to reduce emissions of long-distance transport and contribute to reaching the EU targets for 2030, said Niclas Eriksson, Managing Director at Elgiganten.
Biogas is produced from organic waste, and in the production process organic fertiliser is also formed, which contributes to a circular economy. Using biogas instead of fossil diesel reduces emissions of particulates and fossil carbon dioxide (CO2).
Volvo Trucks gas-fuelled vehicles can run on 100 percent liquefied biogas, which gives completely fossil-free transport. The hope is that the 70–100 vehicles that depart from the distribution centre in Jönköping every 24 hours to more than 250 destinations will show the partners that are taking part in the testing that gas-fuelled vehicles reduce both the fuel costs and the emissions without any negative effect on performance.
The collaboration is closely linked to the opening of Gasum’s first filling station for heavy-duty vehicles (HDV) in Västerås. From May, Gasum will open new stations every month up to and including 2020. There should then be a total of 50 new stations in the Nordic countries.
Every week we talk to logistics buyers and transport companies that want their logistics to be more environmentally friendly at the same time as they want to lower their fuel costs. Liquified gas meets these requirements; so now that availability is increasing quickly with the new filling stations, so will demand, said Mikael Antonsson.
