Air Liquide, Asda team up on biogas operation in UK

French industrial gas firm Air Liquide will install and operate six biomethane distribution stations in the UK for retail group Asda, part of the latter's aim to move its fleet of 1,000 trucks from diesel to gas by 2024.

Asda plans to commission more than 300 new trucks that run on biomethane in 2021, to reduce the environmental footprint of its transport activities. This month it took delivery of 202 gas-powered trucks from Swedish manufacturer Volvo.

Air Liquide's filling stations will be operational by the first quarter of 2021. It will install a biomethane production plant near Nottingham, in central England, by the summer of 2021 with a production capacity of 90 GWh. This will be its 10th biogas plant in the UK, and will raise its biomethane production capacity in the country to 650 GWh.

UK suppliers of biomethane produced from wastes and residues can claim 3.8 renewable transport fuel certificates (RTFC) per kilogram of biogas supplied, according to the country's renewable transport fuel obligation (RTFO) that outlines the domestic biofuels blending mandate.

Compressed biogas (bio-CNG) and liquified biogas (bio-LNG) have comparable energy efficiencies to diesel, but produce significantly lower CO2 emissions. The European Biogas Association (EBA) estimated earlier this year that a rising share of renewable gas in the road fuel mix has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to 55pc by 2030 compared with conventional fuels, and said that consumption of biogas in Europe's transport sector could grow 30-fold by the same year.

By Sophie Barthel