The Södertälje (Sweden) based Scania Transport Laboratory (STL) has commissioned eight new prime movers that run on renewable bioethanol rather than diesel, a move the company claims will reduce the fleet’s CO2 emissions by around 70 percent.
STL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Scania, tests and evaluates vehicle characteristics and performance in commercial haulage. It does this under ‘real world’ conditions while transporting truck components and packaging material between the Södertälje headquarters and various production and assembly facilities throughout northern Europe.
“As a supplier of transport solutions, it is important for us to take the lead in developing sustainable alternative solutions and demonstrate how sustainability and efficiency are linked in practice,” said Anders Nielsen, Scania’s head of production and logistics. “By switching to ethanol, Scania is demonstrating that sustainable solutions can be achieved – here and now – with technology that is already available today.”
Scania currently offers a range of products and services – known as Ecolution by Scania – designed to assist truck and bus operators in reducing their fleets’ CO2 emissions.
To help increase the availability of renewable fuels for commercial vehicles, Scania will open a public filling station in Södertälje later this year with fuel dispensers for RME (rapeseed methyl ester), ED95 (ethanol) and biogas.