Germany-headed specialty chemicals company Evonik Industries AG (Evonik) and Shell plc are partnering to boost the decarbonization of heavy-duty road transportation with bioLNG. Shell is supplying 100 tonnes of bioLNG made from agricultural waste to Evonik which will pass this volume on to selected logistics partners.
An error occurred
On your profile you can see what subscriptions you have access to and more information.
Is some of the information wrong – please contact our customer service.
Please reload the page
Do you want to read the whole article?
- Six editions per year
- Full access to all digital content
- The E-magazine Bioenergy international
- And more ...
With this initiative, both companies want to promote the use of biomethane (aka renewable natural gas – RNG) in the heavy-duty vehicle (HDV) transport sector as a fuel alternative that emits significantly fewer emissions than conventional fossil fuels and is already available today.
According to the statement, bioLNG can reduce carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) emissions by approximately 86 percent compared to diesel and thus contribute to reaching the EU’s 2030 climate targets.
Shell is scaling up the bioLNG supply chain while offering customers progressive emissions reductions.
Working across the sector with customers and partners is the only way we will be able to change heavy-duty transport sustainably, said Thomas de Boer, VP at Shell Commercial Road Transport.
The collaboration with Evonik has presented the opportunity for us to jointly help drive the de-fossilization of transport within the chemical sector, delivering a positive step toward the sector’s climate targets in a commercially viable way with bioLNG. That is very promising and good news to the sector, Thomas de Boer said.
Reduce indirect emissions
The joint action by Evonik and Shell is part of an initiative that the specialty chemicals company launched in January this year.
The aim is to lower the group’s indirect CO2eq emissions from the transportation of raw materials and finished products. This is to be achieved through increased cooperation with selected logistics partners that use trucks running on bioLNG.
The 100 tonnes of bioLNG is equivalent to the average fuel consumption of three trucks in a year.
Already today, 10 percent of Evonik’s truck transports for packed goods in Europe are shipped in climate-friendly trucks and the goal is the increase this share in Germany to 20 percent by 2025.
With our initiative, we show that sustainable mobility with Shell bioLNG is already possible today. Our innovative membrane technology for efficient upgrading of biogas makes it possible to use liquefied or compressed biomethane as an alternative fuel, said Volker Wehber, Head of Evonik’s global SEPURAN Green business for biogas membranes.
Rollout blended bioLNG in Germany
Shell offers a blend of bioLNG to its entire branded LNG refueling network in the Netherlands, offering around a 30 percent reduction of carbon emissions to all customers.
Furthermore, the company plans to offer a blend of bioLNG to its entire branded LNG network in Germany by the third quarter of 2023.
To support the effort, Shell is currently building a new biomethane liquefaction plant at its Energy and Chemical Park Rhineland in Germany.
The plant’s 100 000 tonnes per annum capacity could help to reduce commercial transport’s carbon emissions, aiming for carbon neutrality for the entire German network.
