GEFCO Tests Compressed Natural Gas Truck With Scania

After carrying out a series of tests with natural liquified gas (LNG) in autumn 2019, GEFCO France is continuing to explore, in real operating conditions, different alternatives to conventional fuel.

Between October 12 and 23, 2020, GEFCO tested a Scania CNG-powered truck on a regular regional logistics flow for a customer based in the Bouches-du-Rhône region of the south of France. For two weeks, the truck was used for daily 350 km round trips, covering a total of 3,500 km. Low-polluting and competitively priced, CNG works with tanks that limit the autonomy of heavy-goods vehicles to approximately 500 km, which is suitable for short to medium-haul routes, or urban and regional transportation.

On the basis of the test data, GEFCO intends to assess this alternative energy – reputed to pollute less and emit less greenhouse gas – in terms of fuel consumption, the financial impact on road transportation, and driver comfort before considering offering services including this type of more sustainable transportation to its partners and customers.

Encouraging first results

The first test results confirm that CNG is suitable for use on road transportation flows up to 400-450 km per day, given the tank autonomy. Drivers said they noticed no particular difficulty when using these vehicles, including when refueling. They also liked the driving comfort, which they said was identical to diesel trucks.

Like the previous tests with LNG, the use of a CNG truck has demonstrated the technical and financial feasibility of this alternative energy, which is recognized as reducing the impact of local pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides (NO_x), compared with diesel engines.

Tests in line with GEFCO’s sustainability approach

At GEFCO, optimizing logistics goes hand in hand with reducing our environmental footprint.  To this end, GEFCO has reached its target of reducing the carbon emissions from its transportation business by 2% for the third consecutive year.

Of all the modes of transportation, trucking offers the best opportunities for reducing carbon emissions in the short term, and GEFCO has robust plans to improve its performance in this area, including by optimizing flows, maximizing full loads and limiting empty return journeys.

Innovation also plays a key role, providing access to alternative fuels and more environmentally friendly vehicles. Ideally placed to exploit new opportunities, as they arise GEFCO is already testing double-trailer trucks, LNG and other technical advances such as the Eco-cars fuel-optimizer device in Spain.

Meeting environmental challenges also means building external partnerships. In 2019, GEFCO became one of the first signatories of EVCOM, a commitment by French transporters to achieve strict emissions standards for proprietary and supplier vehicles.