Freight operator starts trials to run trains on cooking oil
In an experiment by rail freight operator Lineas, a locomotive was able to run on cooking oil in the port of Ghent, as part of the company's efforts to reduce its emissions. The train looks like a classic diesel engine but emits 85 per cent less CO2 on non-electrified tracks.
Lineas, the largest private railway operator in Europe, believes in the potential of used cooking oil as a sustainable fuel for part of its fleet of around 250 locomotives. In the port of Ghent, the biofuel known as FAME (fatty acid methyl ester) is supplied by the local branch of agro-industrial group Cargill.
As there is no refuelling infrastructure yet, the train was filled by a tanker during a presentation to the press.
Lineas wants to reduce its Scope 1 emissions - the emissions it causes directly - by 42 per cent by 2030, in part by using biofuel. Cooking oil is more sustainable to use than rapeseed-based biofuel.
Lineas is in the final phase of testing, which is expected to last until June. The trials, in collaboration with Cargill, are important to thoroughly test the locomotives' performance and reliability. In the long term, Lineas hopes to run as many trains as possible with FAME.
#FlandersNewsService | © PHOTO BELGIAN FREELANCE
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