Scania launches biodiesel pilot in Côte d’Ivoire, reducing emissions and creating new jobs
Scania West Africa, TotalEnergies Marketing Côte d’Ivoire, ANADER and LA SIR have inaugurated a biodiesel pilot in Abidjan, the capital city of Côte d’Ivoire. The pilot aims to dramatically reduce emissions from public transport and create jobs through locally produced biofuels, and is a milestone in Scania’s systematic way of working with partners, authorities and customers to enable the transition to sustainable transport.
Sustainably produced biofuels from waste are currently the best option to rapidly reduce emissions from most of the public transport systems in African countries. Biofuel used as biodiesel will lower carbon emissions by up to 80%, and by even more when used as biogas. Recent studies have shown that biofuels will be vital for decarbonising heavy-duty transport over the next few decades, for both new and existing fleets.
In 2017, Scania initiated a collaboration with Agence Nationale d’Appui au Développement Rural (ANADER), a public agency that supports rural development in Côte d’Ivoire, to find opportunities for producing local biofuels from cocoa and rubber, as well as other agricultural waste and animal manure, all of which are present in abundance in the country.
In July 2022, ANADER, Scania and TotalEnergies, a multinational energy company, signed an agreement to develop a pilot project to produce 3,500 litres of FAME biodiesel from rubber seeds and test it for 30 days in a Scania bus operated by the local Abidjan transport company, SOTRA.
“Together with our partners, we adopted a holistic and step-by-step approach to reduce the carbon footprint and air pollution from our buses,” says Nicolas Lougovoy, Head of Strategic Projects for the Africa, Middle East and Central Asia region at Scania.
Over the past year, Scania has delivered 400 biodiesel compatible standard buses and 50 biogas compatible articulated buses to SOTRA, as part of its Sustainable Transport Project with the Côte d’Ivoire Ministry of Transport.
New bus depot and Bus Rapid Transit corridor to come
The second phase of the project will start soon with the construction of a new bus depot and a Bus Rapid Transit corridor by Scania and its partners. The system will provide fast, reliable and comfortable public transport services to the residents of Abidjan.
“Combining Bus Rapid Transit and buses powered by locally produced biofuel from waste will multiply the positive social and environmental impacts by generating local jobs, extra incomes and significantly reducing carbon footprint and air pollution,” says Nicolas Lougovoy.
“We are proud to be part of this innovative and sustainable solution that will benefit both the people of the city and the planet.”
Erik Bratthall
Corporate Public and Media Relations manager
erik.bratthall@scania.com
Scania is a world-leading provider of transport solutions. Together with our partners and customers we are driving the shift towards a sustainable transport system. In 2022, we delivered 80,238 trucks, 4,994 buses as well as 13,400 industrial and marine power systems to our customers. Net sales totalled to over SEK 170 billion, of which over 20 percent were service-related. Founded in 1891, Scania now operates in more than 100 countries and employs nearly 57,000 people. Research and development are mainly concentrated in Sweden. Production takes place in Europe and Latin America with regional product centres in Africa and Asia. Scania is part of TRATON GROUP. For more information visit: www.scania.com
