This is the fourth in a series of reports and posts that will be completed this year and will attempt to provide insights for members into the question of what the future of diesel will be in the EU (and what that might portend globally). This project will be a series of posts and reports over 2019, with a final report to culminate the work, draw conclusions, present insights and provide a comparative analysis of the fuel options covered. The goal is to finish the series by the end of the summer, capping with the final report and a webinar to discuss the results. To refresh members, the fuel types that will be covered include the following: Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs); biodiesel and HVO; CNG, LNG and biomethane; gasoline; methanol and dimethyl Ether (DME); hydrogen; LPG; oxymethylene ethers (OME); Power-to-X or electrofuels.
This report focuses on compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG) and biomethane (also known as bioCNG or renewable natural gas (RNG)). In preparing this report, I spoke to industry and NGO contacts working on these issues. Based on those discussions and my research, I expect that natural gas will be a “bridge fuel” until full transport decarbonization can be reached. Advances in electrification, especially in trucking and shipping could change this. Biomethane also could be a bridge fuel and could stay in the pool even beyond that.