The idea is to promote delivery of goods by trucks powered by liquefied natural gas
02/05/2024
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Lino Cançado — Foto: Divulgação
Eneva, Scania, and Virtu GNL have entered into a partnership to decarbonize road transportation in Brazil. The idea is to promote the delivery of goods by trucks powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG). The trio has contracts with Vale and Suzano to transport products on the so-called Matopiba route, an acronym for the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia.
The contract provides for the delivery of 180 LNG-powered Scania trucks at a cost of around R$1 million each, for a total of R$180 million. The idea is that Eneva will be in charge of producing the gas molecule and Virtu for delivering the final product. Virtu and Eneva already work together through a joint venture, GNL Brasil, which engages in the logistics of delivering natural gas to places without pipelines, carrying out transportation, storage, and regasification.
Eneva estimates that the new market for LNG-fueled long-haul trucking could initially demand up to nine million cubic meters of natural gas per day, reducing Brazil’s emission intensity by two million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Compared with the traditional diesel fleet, the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions can be as much as 20%.
According to Alex Nucci, Scania’s sales director, the volume of 180 trucks is the largest purchase of LNG vehicles in Latin America. “One of the important points of this operation is the fact that it is all domestic, with engines produced in Brazil. The vehicles are 100% powered by gas, they are not adapted. The price of an LNG vehicle is not that different from a diesel vehicle. But with nationalization and economies of scale, the LNG vehicle may become more competitive.”
Initially, thirty vehicles will be used in the partnership’s first operations, which are due to begin in mid-April. The remaining 150 will be delivered throughout 2024.
GNL Brasil supplies LNG for the industrial activities of Vale and Suzano. For Suzano, which has a plant in the city of Imperatriz (Maranhão), GNL Brasil transports around 160,000 cubic meters per day over a distance of 548 kilometers. For Vale, which has a plant in São Luís, also in Maranhão, GNL Brasil transports around 250,000 cubic meters per day over a distance of 320 kilometers.
Eneva’s CEO, Lino Cançado, said the expectation is to achieve scale quickly: “We will start with these 180 trucks, but the vision is that the market is bigger than that and can be scaled up quickly.” The project does not have an exclusive contract and could meet the needs of other companies in the future.
Since 2022, Eneva has invested R$1 billion to reach the capacity to liquefy 600,000 cubic meters of gas per day. According to Mr. Cançado, Eneva has idle gas liquefaction capacity and can increase the volume according to demand. The company produced 360 million cubic meters of gas in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Virtu GNL CEO José de Moura Jr. said LNG-powered vehicles combine efficiency with decarbonization: “For long-distance transport like this, the solution is LNG. The electric vehicle has no autonomy, and the vehicle has to make many stops to refuel. Here, in this partnership, we have the molecule, the truck, and the service.” Virtu GNL has invested R$5.7 billion to promote the infrastructure of refueling stations.
*Por Kariny Leal — Rio de Janeiro
Source: Valor International