Energy company Gasum has opened its first gas filling station in Umeå to serve heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) and passenger cars. This is Gasum’s 9th filling station in Sweden. The company is planning to build a network of 50 gas filling stations across the Nordic countries by early 2020s.
The new gas filling station is aimed at supplying cleaner fuels in an area where there is high fuel demand and heavy traffic. It offers liquefied biogas (LBG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) for HDVs, and compressed natural gas (CNG) and compressed biogas (CBG) for passenger cars, buses and transportation vehicles.
Mikael Antonsson, director of traffic at Gasum Sweden, said: “At the end of last year, we opened a new gas station in Östersund, which together with the Umeå station enables gas-fueled vehicles to be used across Sweden.”
HDVs currently account for up to 30% of Europe’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from road transport. Sweden is planning to reduce road transport emissions by 70% by 2030 compared with 2010 levels. Gasum believes LNG offers an immediate solution for reducing emissions from fossil diesel by more than 20%.
The Umeå station also provides LBG, which is produced from biological waste. With LBG, CO2 emissions can be reduced by up to 85% compared to fossil fuels. Both LNG and LBG can be used in the same infrastructure, which Gasum said makes the transition to LBG easy and cost-efficient.
“Biogas is a high-performance renewable fuel,” stated Anna Säfvestad Albinsson, project leader at BioFuel Region AB, Umeå. “New stations accelerate the usage of biogas-fueled vehicles, which is why the new station is not only important for the Umeå region but for Sweden as well.”
