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Migros: Own Biomethane Filling Station in Operation

Swiss retail group opens a facility for its CNG trucks in Basel, which are powered by biomethane produced from residual materials. Other propulsion technologies are also utilized to make transport more environmentally friendly.

Pierre Müller, head of logistics at Migros Basel, with one of the biogas trucks in front of the company's own biogas filling station located directly on the premises of the Migros operations center in Münchenstein in Basel-Land. | Image: CNG-Mobility.ch.
Pierre Müller, head of logistics at Migros Basel, with one of the biogas trucks in front of the company's own biogas filling station located directly on the premises of the Migros operations center in Münchenstein in Basel-Land. | Image: CNG-Mobility.ch.
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von Johannes Reichel

To achieve the climate targets set by the EU, the cooperative Migros Basel is relying, among other things, on a fleet of commercial vehicles powered by biogas and aims to reduce its CO2 emissions by 80 percent by 2030. Additionally, transport routes and vehicle utilization are set to be optimized, they say. The entire fleet of 30 diesel trucks is to be replaced by trucks powered by alternative drive technologies. These include not only five biogas trucks and one biogas delivery van, but also electric and hydrogen trucks. To promote the operation of biogas trucks, Migros has now, according to a press report from the interest group of the Swiss gas industry CNG-Mobility, put its own biogas filling station into operation at the premises of its operations center in Münchenstein in Basel-Land.

To reduce CO2 emissions, multiple propulsion technologies are needed, says Pierre Müller, Head of Logistics at Migros Basel. The right propulsion must be chosen depending on the application. The primary goal is to drive as little as possible at first, then with as little CO2 emissions as possible.

"To postulate a single propulsion technology as the panacea would be wrong!"

Therefore, in the coming years, the company plans to renew its truck fleet and deploy vehicles based on suitability, for example, for shorter inner-city trips of 10 to 200 kilometers per day, electric vehicles are preferred; for longer trips, CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) trucks fueled with biogas are ideal. For fleet renewal by 2030, five hydrogen, 12 electric, and 12 biogas trucks are currently planned.

Several Advantages of Biogas

The additional costs were hardly an issue for biogas vehicles compared to diesel trucks, according to Müller. In contrast, e-trucks are significantly more expensive. As for hydrogen trucks, they are only available in the pay-per-use model.

Müller sees another advantage of biogas in the optimal utilization of material: biogas is produced from the fermentation of biogenic residues, such as green waste and meat waste, and in the future, it will also come from unsold products from Migros stores:

“Products that we cannot donate to charitable organizations are put to another meaningful use and used to power our gas-powered trucks.”

In this way, around 2,000 tons of biomass could be optimally utilized each year; additionally, the amount of waste and disposal costs would be reduced; the biomass would return to the circular economy and would not be unnecessarily incinerated in waste treatment plants.

The Swiss portal cng-mobility, as a joint project of the regional companies of the Swiss gas industry, provides further information on alternative drive technologies on its website, with a view to the entire life cycle of a vehicle.

Translated automatically from German.
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