LNG Blue Corridors: the Right Solution for a More Economical Long Distance Road Transport in Europe

In the revision of the trans-European energy network policy (TEN-E) the European Commission highlights the importance of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals to cover Europe’s future increasing demand for natural gas. This estimation coincides with NGVA Europe’s focus to promote a European NG/biomethane supply chain for long distance road transport via LNG Blue Corridors, the right solution for a more economical road transport. The Commission report identifies various projects of re-gasification terminals across the EU, some are already under implementation, others are planned.

Recent studies indicate that the most promising locations for new LNG terminals are:

• Italy: Porto Empedocle, Tarento, Trieste, Livorno, Monfalcone, Priolo, Gioia Tauro, San Ferdinando

• Netherlands: Lion Gas, Gate LNG

• France: Le Verdon, Dunkirk

• Ireland: Shannon

• Germany: Wilhemshaven

• Poland: Swioujscie

• Spain: El Murel

• Croatia: Krk

• Cyprus: Vassiliko

Other projects have been or are envisaged in Greece and Croatia. The Commission considers the transportation from western EU countries to central EU countries of natural gas mainly imported from LNG terminals:

• Entry points: Spain (North): e.g. Oviedo, Gijon, Bilbao and Barcelona

• Exit point: South Germany (Ulm)

“This could potentially lead to Spanish LNG facilities being used as an alternative source of natural gas for central Europe”, the report emphasis.

The LNG Blue Corridor principle

So far heavy vehicles running on Natural Gas (NG) were only for municipal use; urban buses and garbage collection trucks. In both types of application engine performance and autonomy are good with present technologies, being well adapted to this alternative and cleaner fuel. Engine power is around 300 CV, with single fuel, dedicated 100% NG.

A very important aspect of the operation of these urban vehicles is that after the daily work, all of them go back to their depot every night. This single day operation facilitates the refuelling at the depot, giving them the autonomy necessary for next day. Practically all these vehicles run on CNG (compressed NG/biomethane), with a total tank capacity from 700 to 1.000 litre eq. of CNG. The extra weight of the CNG tanks is not very significant, and both types of vehicles operate without any disadvantage against their diesel counterparts. More importantly, bio natural gas vehicles combine the great advantages of much lower emissions CO2, NOx, sooty particles and other pollutants and noise; the perfect solution for the city transport.

The equivalence in autonomy of 1 litre of diesel oil is 5 litre of CNG, compressed to 200 bar. Five times more volume of fuel prevents the use of CNG in heavy road transport, because its volume and weight would be too big for a long distance truck. This opens the way for LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas), which is the way to transport natural gas by ship to any point of the globe. NG liquefies at 162º C below zero, and the cost in energy is only 5% of the original gas. This “new” form of NG gives LNG the advantage of a very high energy content. Only 1,8 litre of LNG are needed to meet the equivalent autonomy as using 1 litre of diesel oil.

A 40 tonne road tractor in Europe needs a tank of 400 to 500 litres for a 1.000 km trip; its equivalent volume with liquid gas would be 700 to 900 litres of LNG, a tank dimension that could be easily fitted to the lateral of the truck chassis. LNG is therefore opening the use of NG to medium and long distance road transport. State-of-the-art LNG trucks from our members IVECO or Daimler can autonomously cover 1.100 km on LNG.

When talking about energy supply, it is now interesting to look at the European map of LNG terminals, where we can see that the South European coasts have a number of LNG terminals already in operation. The transport of LNG by road tankers is also well developed, enabling to reach and supply any point of Europe with LNG.

We define Blue Corridor as a road offering several LNG refuelling possibilities for heavy vehicles, giving them full guarantee of fuel availability. Looking at the map we could imagine the first European Blue corridors along the Mediterranean coast, which is also the starting point of a high density flow of trucks carrying fruits and vegetables from Spain to central Europe. The installation of a few LNG or L-CNG filling stations, also able to supply CNG when re-gasifying the LNG to passenger cars, which especially interesting in absence of a gas pipeline grid, in some strategic points of central Europe, would permit a much more economic and clean way for long-distance freight transport along the main European transit routes.

[mappress]

Source: NGVA Europe, January 10, 2010;