Linde purchases 20 LNG-fueled trucks for North America; 20% of 2012 tractor purchases
19 January 2012
Linde, a global leader in the growing liquefied natural gas fueling market, is purchasing 20 LNG-fueled trucks. The trucks, expected to be on the road later this year, will account for 20% of Linde’s 2012 tractor purchases and will be integrated into Linde’s fleet of 700-plus trucks carrying cryogenic gases to customers throughout North America.
LNG is natural gas that has been cooled to liquid form to enable easier transportation and storage. For years, Linde has brought its cryogenic expertise to develop the merchant LNG market by building plants at various commercial scales to produce LNG from virtually any methane source.
The purchase is an outgrowth of a pilot project in southern California, where Linde tested the effectiveness of three LNG trucks hauling liquid carbon dioxide to customers throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The success of the pilot project now allows Linde to move to commercial utilization of these trucks.
The project delivered several key benefits. Not only did the pilot project help Linde save money on fuel, but it reduced Linde’s carbon footprint, since natural gas burns more cleanly than diesel, yielding between 20 and 30% fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
In addition, the LNG-fueled tractors are lighter in weight than the diesel-fueled trucks they are replacing, which allows Linde to increase payloads and therefore improve service to customers.
The Linde Group is a world-leading gases and engineering company with around 50,000 employees working in more than 100 countries worldwide. In the 2010 financial year, it achieved sales of €12.9 billion (US$17.9 billion).
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