October 15, 2024. The municipal public transport operator of Bologna (TPER), Italy, has inaugurated its new distribution station for liquefied natural gas (LNG), Bio-LNG and compressed natural gas derived from liquid methane (CNG-L) within the company’s depot in via Ferrarese.
The plant, already operational, will guarantee the refueling of a large part of TPER’s fleet of natural gas vehicles, which has 451 methane buses, of which 329 are CNG and 122 are LNG.
The construction of the service station has involved a total investment of 1.5 million euros, financed by public resources made available by the Emilia-Romagna Region – 420,000 euros from the Development and Cohesion Fund (FSC) and 560,000 euros from the National Strategic Plan for Sustainable Mobility (PSNMS) – and the remaining 510,000 euros from the TPER.
The TPER was a pioneer in Europe – in 2019 – in tenders for the purchase of LNG buses, as they guarantee greater daily mileage. Natural gas, in fact, is recognized by the EU as a bridge fuel in the current transition phase towards zero-emission local public transport. Methane buses, in addition to reducing harmful emissions compared to diesel, have the great advantage of being able to be powered by biofuels without the need for technical modifications to the vehicles or additional infrastructure, thus guaranteeing the possibility of decarbonized public transport.
The filling station has been designed by the companies SOL SpA and CEDEM Scarl.
