First LNG filling station in Austria being built in Ennshafen
On July 6, 2017 the groundbreaking ceremony for the first LNG filling station took place in Ennshafen. The RAG company supports an important step of establishing LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) as environmentally friendly fuel for transport by truck.
The site at Donaustraße in Ennshafen was selected, as its location in the central area of Upper Austria ideally suits this purpose. Transport companies that rely on LNG can tank this fuel of the future without making big detours. Within a construction period of just a few weeks, the modern LNG fulling station in Ennshafen will be completed and shall be officially opened by the end of September 2017.
Since April 2017 the Iveco Stralis NP – the first LNG truck in Austria – has been successfully used at RAG. More Iveco Stralis NP will be delivered to selected customers in September 2017. More than 2,000 trucks of this type are on the road all over Europe.
LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) is natural gas, which is liquefied by cooling to a temperature of about -160°C. The expansion ratio of liquid to gaseous is 1: 600 for natural gas, which allows to store and transport large quantities of energy in the form of LNG. It can be produced directly in Austria or transported to the customers using special tank wagons or tank vessels.
In addition to easy storage and transport, LNG still has a significant advantage: it is very economical and efficient. As very pure natural gas consisting almost 100 percent of methane, it has an average calorific value of about 11.3 kWh per cubic meter of gas.
Advantages of LNG-powered trucks:
- Compared to a EURO-6 diesel truck, up to 20,000 kilos of CO2 per truck can be saved per year
- Reduction of fine dust by 95 percent
- Reduction of nitrogen oxides (NOx, NO2) by more than 70 percent
- No AdBlue/catalyst required
- LNG for heavy traffic and industry is technically mature and permanently available
- LNG fuel reduces noise emissions by approximately 50 percent
- European LNG filling station network being expanded, already more than 60 filling stations in operation
- EU initiatives such as Horizon 2020