In the new JENS TALKS series NGVA Europe's Secretary General Dr Jens Andersen speaks to industry experts, EU politicians and leading engineers to discuss and promote innovative solutions to reduce emissions, develop new strategies to push renewable and sustainable energy and bring companies and their ideas for the future together.
In the first episode presented by the Hexagon Group, Jens Andersen talked business with Eric Bippus, SVP Global Sales and Marketing from Hexagon Agility. The company is pushing hightech European engineering further. Its Hexagon Agility branch focuses on technologic solutions for low emissions in long haul heavy duty transport through RNG, while the Hexagon Purus branch pushes zero emission private transport with components for BEVs. All with one clear focus – clean air everywhere.
With international political leaders coming just out of COP26 and the Fit for 55 EU guidelines there certainly is a lot of work to do for the transport industry as well as for politics. And the new agreements made in Glasgow clearly show that time is precious and the world needs all available technology to reduce carbon emissions now and can´t wait longer for future developments to start. The agreement to capture methane and therefore reduce emissions by all participating states opens up fantastic possibilities for CNG to be used as fuel. In short: there won´t be a shortage anytime soon.
The first milestones in terms of climate goals sit around 2025 and 2030 as Eric Bippus pointed out. That´s why Hexagon wants to change the way fleets operate in terms of fuel. To achieve this rupture in the transport sector that is responsible for around 20% of global CO2-emissions, Hexagon focuses on technology that is deployable in mass and scalable for fleet operators to reduce investment risks and to set clear goals in terms of decarbonisation as well as financing.
From Bippus point of view and various third party studies commissioned by Hexagon, natural gas remains the most efficient solution as soon as it comes to medium and long haul transportation. RNG usage reduces global warming by capturing methane otherwise emitted to the atmosphere. Depending on biomass source RNG has an 80 - 200% CO2-emissions improvement over diesel trucks running today, natural gas performs even better than what forecasts predict for the use of hydrogen in these transport sectors.
Another decisive point that speaks for the use of CNG/RNG is readiness and sustainability for heavy duty long haul transport. While BEVs and PCEVs achieve only a fraction of today’s kilometres between fillings of diesel trucks, natural gas trucks with up to 4 gas cylinders can run for 1600 km per filling compared to 2000 km for diesel trucks. Combined with the already existing CNG stations network throughout Europe these possible reaches help reduce driver anxiety about having enough fuel and establish security regarding the calculation of routes and transport times.
On top, RNG is a mature technology today with over 100 available factories globally and a strong forecasted growth potential. European parliament sees a low case scenario of 475.000 and a high case scenario of up to 675.000 registered trucks with NG powertrain until 2030. But natural gas is also a great possibility for companies to reach out into emerging markets with their available CNG-technology as an entry point into the business.
In his roundup, Jens Andersen summed it up to the effect that natural gas is a No-regrets-solution in order to start decarbonizing now and therefore help to keep our planet cool and clean, improving air quality everywhere.
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The YouTube recording can be accessed here.
