Biomethane supplier CNG Fuels has acquired a majority stake in biomethane sourcing firm Renewable Transport Fuel Services Limited (RTFS) as part of plans to offer a one-stop shop from the producer to the fuel pump.

CNG Fuels said the acquisition of RTFS will help it meet its customers’ growing appetite for bio-CNG and will also provide significant benefits to biomethane producers who will now have long-term direct access to downstream customer demand.

The deal sees RTFS rebranded as ReFuels to better reflect the growing scope of the business. ReFuels will combine CNG Fuels’ UK network of public access Bio-CNG refuelling stations with RTFS’s upstream biomethane sourcing activities to create what CNG Fuels describes as one of Europe’s largest fully integrated renewable biomethane suppliers for heavy transport.

Philip Fjeld, CEO of ReFuels and CNG Fuels said: “Running trucks on Bio-CNG has now become "business as usual" for fleet operators and CNG trucks are being adopted en masse UK-wide as fleet operators recognise Bio-CNG as the most cost-effective and lowest carbon alternative fuel to diesel available today.

"In 2022 alone, we saw dispensed volume increase by 62% compared to 2021 and we expect to surpass this growth rate in 2023.

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"Acquiring a majority stake in Renewable Transport Fuel Service enables us to become a fully-integrated supplier of 100% sustainable and renewable biomethane – from the producer down to the dispenser nozzle. Under our new ReFuels structure, we are very well-positioned to accelerate our sustainable growth rate and help the sector decarbonise even faster”.

ReFuels will keep the CNG Fuels brand name for its Bio-CNG refuelling station network, to maintain its dominant UK brand profile.

The company serves more than 80 individual customer fleets, including household brands such as Amazon, Royal Mail, Aldi, Waitrose , Warburtons and EVRi, amongst many others.

Around 1,300 HGVS refuel at its stations daily and this number is expected to reach more than 2,000 trucks by this time next year based on confirmed orders from its customers.

CNG Fuels currently has ten stations in operation, enabling low carbon deliveries from Inverness to Cornwall. Three further sites are in construction, with four more going into construction by the end of Q3 2023.

Most sites are owned in a joint venture with Foresight Group, CNG Foresight. The 10 existing sites can refuel around 5,000 high mileage HGVs per day, and the new sites will increase total capacity to around 8,500 HGVs per day by the middle of 2024, enabling 5% of the UK’s heaviest truck fleet to access biomethane along the UK’s major trucking routes.

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