Gas for cleaner transport

Gas mobility offers important benefits to consumers, the environment and the economy. It provides fast and cost-effective way to decarbonise road transport and improve air quality in cities.

Transport represents a quarter of the EU’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and is the main cause of air pollution in cities. To achieve climate neutrality, a 90% reduction in transport emissions is needed by 2050. Addressing this challenge will be the aim of the EU’s upcoming Sustainable Mobility Strategy. Gas mobility is the most cost-effective solution to decarbonise the EU transport sector.

Low emissions and cleaner air

Natural gas as transportation fuel has lower GHG emissions than any other hydrocarbon fuel and emits virtually none of the pollutants, such as particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, that increasingly pollute urban areas. Use of compressed natural gas (CNG) in passenger vehicles, for example, could reduce CO2 emissions by 7% compared with diesel and 23% compared with petrol. By blending just 20% of renewable gases with natural gas, GHG emissions in passenger cars could be reduced by a further 17%. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) offers significant environmental advantages, particularly in terms of indoors and outdoors air quality. It is characterized by low particle emissions, low NOx (nitrogen oxide) emissions and low sulphur content.

Availability

Gas as a vehicle fuel is available as compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). It can be used for cars, vans, buses and trucks, with many different models on the market today from established manufactures. LNG is also becoming the fuel of choice for the shipping industry as an immediately available and affordable alternative offering lower sulphur emissions.

Integration of renewable gas

The use of renewable gases in transport can enable whole fleets of vehicles to become carbon-neutral. Production of bioLPG and biomethane from waste biomass conversion is a perfect example of circular economy where a clean fuel is produced locally, starting from waste material and also creating high-value co-product such as biofertilizers. City fleets such as buses or waste collect trucks running on renewable gases are a virtuous example of this. Natural gas also offers important synergies with synthetic gas produced using wind and solar energy.

Natural gas in transport – video