Biomethane vehicle

Junk fuel

Who

Coca-Cola is running a trial of a 21-tonne Iveco Stralis commercial vehicle powered with biomethane from a landfill site in Surrey. It is the first such vehicle to be operated in the UK.

Technology

Coca-Cola selected biomethane because of its carbon savings as an alternative transport fuel that can be used in unmodified natural gas-powered vehicles. The fuel comes from the GasRec reclamation site in Surrey, where gas from the decomposition of organic waste is collected and upgraded to biomethane. The biomethane arrives at the Coca-Cola depot as a liquid, which is stored on site and delivered into the vehicle as a compressed gas.

The Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell Technologies will carry out independent monitoring of the gas vehicle performance, comparing the data to diesel-powered delivery vehicles in the Coca-Cola fleet. The vehicle is based at a distribution centre in Enfield, north London and makes daily deliveries into central London and surrounding areas. 

Cenex is providing data-logging equipment to monitor vehicle speed, position and selected engine parameters. The data will be analysed to develop a drive-cycle that is statistically representative of Coca-Cola delivery duties. Using this drive-cycle the standard diesel delivery vehicles can be compared with the biomethane-powered vehicle and other low-carbon technologies on a rolling road in a vehicle testing laboratory for assessment of fuel consumption, carbon dioxide and air quality emission performance.

Application

Cenex will publish the results of the trial in early 2011. To reserve your free copy of the report forward an email to technical@cenex.co.uk with ‘Coca-Cola trial report’ as the subject line.