Last week was a very active one for Belgium’s gas mobility industry. On Wednesday, Idélux, Intercommunal Association For Sustainable Economic Development of the Province Of Luxembourg, and ENORA, a company formedby ENGIE Electrabel, G&V Energy Group and Ideta, inaugurated the first CNG station in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium, to promote mobility with natural gas. The station is located in Neufchâteau.
Last week, as well, The Dutch company LIQAL has been awarded a contract for turnkey realization of an LNG and LCNG refueling station, to be located at the Texaco service station adjacent the E40 highway in Heverlee, Belgium.
Neufchâteau CNG Station
For the occasion, the various bodies that took part in this project met on the Ardenne Logistics site.
“Cop 24 has just opened up in Poland, and there is no need to remind people of the environmental challenges we face for our future – it is important to think of new alternatives – CNG is one of them: it is more ecological and more economical. Luxembourg is not spared by this problem of air quality, so we must promote this type of fuel now, ” said Willy Borsus, Minister-President of Wallonia.
Driving with CNG, is really better for the environment, CNG reduces emissions of CO2 from 20 to 30%, emissions of fine particles released into the air are also reduced by 80% compared to diesel engines, in addition, the vehicle engine noise is significantly reduced with CNG” , said the representative of Enora, the operator of these stations.
Heverlee LNG / LCNG fueling station
The station will be deployed by the natural gas fuel station operator Drive Systems in cooperation with EG Group (Texaco).
LIQAL added that this is the first highway site for LNG in North-West Europe. It will have an LNG storage capacity of 80,000 cubic meters and will be capable of fuelling one LNG truck and two CNG trucks simultaneously. It will also have the capability to supply CNG to trailers for delivery to other stations operated by Drive Systems.
The project received funding from the EU through its Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) program.
Transport company Ninatrans, a Belgian pioneer in LNG powered transport since 2015, will be a launching customer for the station. “Alternative fuels as LNG are the future for road transport, but they must be easily accessible” says Benny Smets, CEO of Ninatrans. “The LNG station at the Texaco site on the E40 highway, close to our HQ, perfectly fits in our strategy to decarbonize activities. We decided to order 10 additional LNG trucks, and more units will be added as we replace the older diesel trucks”.
Joost Jansen, Business Development Manager at LIQAL states “We are delighted that yet another station operator acknowledges the benefits of our technology and integrated approach. It is great to be given the opportunity to build this new highway location. With the addition of this site in Heverlee, being LIQAL’s fifth Belgian fuelling facility, we further strengthen our leading position in North West Europe”.