The new site will be the first public Bio-LNG refuelling facility in East Anglia, marking a significant expansion of the UK’s national gas refuelling infrastructure – helping to open up strategic coverage across Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, supporting both regional and long-haul operations.
James Westcott, Chief Commercial Officer at Gasrec, says: “This development partnership with FreshLinc will enable us to bring biomethane infrastructure to an area of the country that was previously not serviced.
“The demand for biomethane continues to grow at pace and the site in Spalding forms another important part of our plans to build a resilient national backbone of refuelling facilities allowing more and more operators to transition away from diesel.”
FreshLinc has been exploring various ways to decarbonise its fleet of approximately 400 commercial vehicles and believes biomethane currently offers its best route of switching to alternative fuels. It is planning to add its first intake of gas-powered trucks later this year.
Lee Juniper, CEO at FreshLinc, says: “Reducing the environmental impact of our operation is something we take very seriously. For our line of work, biomethane represents the best way for us to instantly reduce our emissions.
“We ran a recent trial with Volvo gas-powered trucks and were impressed with the technology. The performance and refuelling is very similar to diesel. Having utilised Gasrec’s refuelling stations as part of the trial, we quickly chose them as our infrastructure partner. Reliability and access to fuel is paramount for us – as the most experienced operator in the UK, we’re drawn to the robust approach Gasrec takes to monitoring and maintenance, as well as the impressive station uptimes across its network.”
Working closely with Gasrec on the implementation of the new site, the immediate plan is to install a skid-mounted tanker-fed facility, with capacity to refuel 100 gas-powered trucks every day, before installing a large permanent refuelling site later this year.
“It’s important to stress this isn’t a FreshLinc - only facility. The site will be immediately open to the public, allowing like-minded operators of all sizes access to this cleaner and cheaper fuel,” adds Juniper. Gasrec currently has 18 biomethane facilities operational across the country with station uptimes of more than 99% across the network. All facilities are supported by its Remote Monitoring Centre, in Daventry, and a nationwide fleet of engineers which offers operational support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.