Council installs ‘green gas’ station to fuel its vehicles

A handful of local councils are trialling temporary fuel pumps for the green gas, but Leeds City Council is thought to be the first local authority in the UK to have its own permanent biomethane station at Cross Green.

It will provide fuel storage and easier re-filling facilities for the authority’s two refuse trucks running on gas – which currently rely on regular fuel deliveries.

More council vehicles could eventually convert to the green fuel and potentially other organisations in the city could share the pumps.

One truck runs on biomethane, a natural gas produced during the breakdown of organic materials such as food waste or manure. The other can use a mixture of biomethane and diesel at the same time.

Since the two gas-powered refuse trucks were introduced to the frontline refuse collection fleet they have achieved reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, with the dedicated biomethane vehicle notching up a 60 per cent reduction.

The majority of funding for the new £150,000 fuelling station has come from Cenex, (Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell technologies) under the Department for Transport Alternative Fuels Infrastructure grant programme.