June 11, 2023. Trucks from all over Brazil travel every day on the highways of the State of Santa Catarina. In the search for a less polluting energy source, natural gas has been increasingly adopted in heavy-duty vehicles, providing an alternative for the transition to a clean energy matrix. In this sense, SCGÁS maintains a network of 140 compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations distributed throughout the State, 62 of which are located at strategic points on the federal highways that cross the territory of Santa Catarina.
With the aim of further expanding the supply of raw material, the company is promoting the development of the so-called “blue corridors”, that is, the implementation of stations that allow the supply of CNG at high flow rates in the planned locations, in order to better serve the national heavy fleet.
In October 2022, the first high-flow CNG station began operating in the municipality of Araquari. While the other facilities serve both passenger cars and freight vehicles, this facility has adequate fuel flow for the heavy fleet, reducing overall fueling time by approximately one-third.
By 2024, the distributor plans to expand its infrastructure with the implementation of 3 new high-flow refueling stations on the roads of Santa Catarina. According to the SCGÁS Sales Engineer. Ronaldo Lopes, the location of these new facilities must be strategically planned: “Our objective is to expand these high-flow operations in strategic places on the federal and state highways that cross our State, thus guaranteeing the CNG supply in the corridors that interconnect the large flow of heavy vehicles between Santa Catarina and other regions.
The high-flow service stations are part of the objectives set out in the distributor’s investment plan, which, in total, aims to connect 12 new service stations with CNG by 2027.
