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BOC has opened its first public LNG refeuller at Tarcutta, NSW, representing a vital link in the company’s planned network of stations for the low emissions trucking fuel along the Hume Highway.
BOC, a member of The Linde Group, today announced the official opening of its first public refeuller on the East Coast of Australia. It is designed to meet the changing needs of the Australian transport sector where awareness of the vital future fuel is growing strongly.
The state of the art Tarcutta refeuller is the centrepiece of BOC’s proposed LNG supply chain for trucks along the major Australian transport corridor.
The gases and engineering company has other LNG refuelling stations already operating at Preston, VIC and in development at Wetherill Park, NSW with others to open along the Hume Highway in the near future.
Trucking and logistics company Linfox will be amongst the first to benefit from BOC’s patented refuelling technology having ordered two purpose-built LNG vehicles to service their Sydney to Melbourne work with BOC.
Linfox’s President Resources & Industrial, Ian Kent said the company was proud to be working alongside BOC in promoting an economical low-emissions fuel alternative for the trucking sector.
“Linfox and BOC share the same commitment to driving innovative solutions which make a difference,’’ Ian said.
“We are very excited to be partnering with BOC in embracing this new fuel technology for our Hume Highway services.
“Like BOC, Linfox sees LNG as an important alternative to diesel from a commercial, economic and environmental perspective,’’ he said.
The new Tarcutta LNG refeuller, which has been designed by BOC to operate as simply and safely as a regular diesel dispenser, is also the first of its kind to be publicly available for any transport operator with an LNG equipped vehicle.
BOC’s general manger for LNG, Alex Dronoff, said the Tarcutta refeuller was the latest example of company’s cutting-edge LNG innovation.
“Designed and built in Australia by BOC, the award winning refeuller replicates and improves the bowser experience people are used to with traditional fuel,” Mr Dronoff said.
“Tarcutta customers will be able refuel the same quantity in half the time when compared with diesel.”
Mr Dronoff said the system’s efficiency has increased significantly, keeping the LNG cold by utilizing patented liquid nitrogen technology.
Other advantages over traditional LNG refuellers include a simplified design reducing the number of automatically activated valves from eight to three to cut costs and improve reliability, and greatly reducing the “footprint” size of the refeuller to approximately 5m x 8m, down from 5m x 15m.
BOC is investing heavily in LNG plants and projects Australia-wide to meet the changing needs of the transport industry.
BOC is Australia’s original pioneer in developing the LNG highway concept, having already rolled out Australia’s first Micro-LNG plant at Westbury, Tasmania and, along with truck consortium LNGR, a network of refuelling stations around the island state in 2011.
The company is also heavily focused on developing an LNG highway servicing Australia’s eastern seaboard of which the Tarcutta refeuller forms a vital part.
The project is well progressed with BOC spending approximately $65 million upgrading its Dandenong Air Separation Unit (ASU) and LNG facilities in 2010. This is in addition to the development of a micro-LNG plant near the Queensland township of Chinchilla which will be providing the trucking industry with the cleaner alternative fuel from 2014.
At its LNG plants, BOC liquefies natural gas in a refrigeration process and transports the resulting LNG in specially-designed vacuum tankers to its network of refuelling stations.
Mr Dronoff said BOC’s state-of-the-art energy efficiency technologies would form a key element of Australia’s future energy mix.
“BOC is very pleased to be playing its part in helping to reduce greenhouse emissions, develop new industry and boost regional and state economies through the delivery of safe, reliable and proven technology with our LNG plants and networks,’’ Mr Dronoff said.