• 16 Feb 2018

What took place a few days ago in Brembate (BG) appeared more like the launch of a supply chain agreement, rather than a inauguration ceremony of a new LNG service station. In the LNG sector, it seems to be consolidated a strategy, which increasingly sees the active participation of various industrial subjects that break the traditional patterns of fuel network distribution, operating in extra network with infrastructures open to all.

pe.tra, a Lombard intermodal transport and logistics company, decided to create its own MZ Energia service station, dedicated to alternative fuels. The following companies also participated in the investment: Iveco Auto Industriale Bergamasca; IVECO; BRN Bernardini; SOL Spa; Michelin Solutions.

Record numbers for the initiative, starting with the investment for the plant construction (3 million euros) with a return time of 5-6 years; the environmental quality of the pe.tra fleet, which today has 40% of methane vehicles; the dimension of the station, 7 thousand square meters and the services it offers to truck drivers (kitchens, showers, laundry, minimarket, workshop with spare parts); the capacity of the cryogenic tank, 100 LNG cubic meters, which will be supplied twice a week from Marseilles; the product supply time with two dispensers, 160lt / min (over 80 kg of LNG) that allows to refuel simultaneously two trucks in no more than 5 minutes; the environmental quality of the new 400-bhp Stralis delivered: - 32% NOx, -99% fine dust, two tanks of 540 liters for an autonomy of up to 1500 km; 1700 Nm of torque, 12-speed automatic transmission with Eco Roll that saves fuel. Pe.tra also decided to try the latest Iveco product, the 460 HP Stralis NP with the acquisition of two units within the next March.

The importance of the project was underlined by all the participants in the ceremony, Gianandrea Pellegrinelli, pe.tra president, Pierre Lahutte, Iveco president, and in particular by Paolo Zanardi, Iveco Auto Industriale Bergamasca owner. Also significant was the intervention of Michele Mazzucconi (Mazzucconi Group), manufacturer of aluminum castings for engines and suspensions, major pe.tra customer who chose LNG vehicles to supply their customers in Germany, including BMW, Porsche and Audi. The ceremony was attended also by SOL Spa, with Ing. Fumagalli, MIT, with Mario Dogliani, ALIS logistics association, with Eurgenio Grimaldi, Grimaldi Group, Bernardini Impianti and local institutions with Paolo Mora, director of the economic development department of the Lombardia region.

As Lahutte underlined, "the turnover of natural gas components in Italy reaches 1.7 billion euros and this makes it an extremely mature, concrete and economic product". Speaking about the importance for large transport companies to have their own filling stations, Lahutte stressed that "today with LNG the distribution system is reinvented and companies can take it back in their hands also because it is a fuel that does not require particular refining processes”.

Source: Men and Transport - Iveco Press Release