A Pamplona based public operator has received new Scania buses that it will run on biomethane only
Public bus operator Moventis TCC Pamplona has acquired 13 brand new gas buses from Scania to run on biomethane only.
As part of the Moventia group, the Spanish company carries out urban transport in Pamplona and 17 municipal districts in the northern Spanish region of Navarra.
“This deal is a truly holistic initiative, to utilise local waste as a resource for sustainable transport,” says Pedro Cotera, Business Manager City Buses at Scania.
“Spain is a country with a strong agricultural and food production industry, and this is a step towards energy independence.”
This purchase is a first step on Mancomunidad Comarca de Pamplona’s (MCP) road to decarbonising urban traffic, in which all public service vehicles will soon follow suit, either through electrification or by utilising locally sourced biomethane.
As the biogas infrastructure has been put in place, an expansion of the electric grid has simultaneously been done in the area. Preparations are now ongoing with the creation of new charging points for new e-vehicles planned for the near future.
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At the public announcement of the fleet renewal, the operator also revealed a new gas supply installation beside the garages. It will allow the new biogas-powered buses to be fuelled on site. Filling will take around four minutes, giving each bus an autonomy of about 300 km.
The responsible public transportation authority MCP set an ambitious target to improve the overall urban environment. This includes abandoning fossil fuels in the public vehicle fleet by 2030. The new buses are the first in Spain to meet the Euro 6E emissions standard for compressed gas vehicles (CNG).
They will be powered by biomethane, extracted from landfill waste in a new processing centre. In the future sewage will also be used as an energy source.
Scania says biogas vehicles achieve a reduction of up to 90 per cent in offset of CO2 emissions, a 70 per cent reduction in NOx and a 90 per cent reduction in particulate matter, compared with their fossil diesel equivalents.
In addition, Scania says they are 50 per cent less noisy, which improves driver and passenger comfort.