With over 18m gas-powered vehicles in the world, 1.9m of which are in Europe, using gas as vehicle fuel is nothing new.

Using Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in HGVs instead of diesel reduces emissions by around 22%. However, using CNG produced from biomethane can reduce emissions by over 90%. Accessing BioCNG in Ireland is about to become significantly easier.

This month, energy supplier Flogas Enterprise, and Gas Networks Ireland turned the sod on a new BioCNG refuelling station.

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Located in St Margaret’s in north County Dublin, just off the M50, the 2,900m2 station is expected to open in April 2024 and will be Ireland’s first dedicated BioCNG station supporting Irish businesses to decarbonise their commercial transport fleets.

Keeling’s distribution fleet, located nearby, are expected to be a key customer as the company transitions to BioCNG.

Certification

The renewable gas for the refuelling station will be predominately sourced from a new anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in Co Cork which is injected into the national gas network.

The BioCNG will be certified by an EU voluntary scheme, such as ISCC or RedCert, to verify it meets the sustainability criteria set out in EU law and qualifies as a ‘zero-emissions’ renewable fuel.

The Gas Networks Ireland Renewable Gas Registry will track the allocation of the biomethane from the point of injection into the grid to the point of withdrawal at individual refuelling stations to meet the EU mass-balancing requirements and ensure compliance with the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) scheme in Ireland, operated by the National Oil Reserves Agency (NORA).

Flogas

The new Flogas Enterprise BioCNG refuelling station is supported by Gas Networks Ireland’s Causeway project, which has to date delivered a network of high capacity, fast-fill CNG stations nationwide, developed a renewable gas injection facility, deployed a fleet of CNG vehicles and made a CNG vehicle fund available to businesses in Ireland.