Scania launches West African biodiesel pilot

December 10, 2024

Scania West Africa, TotalEnergies Marketing Côte d’Ivoire, Agence Nationale d’Appui au Développement Rural (ANADER), and LA SIR have inaugurated a biodiesel pilot project in Abidjan, the capital city of Côte d’Ivoire.

The pilot project 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 regarded by many as 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 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 multinational energy company TotalEnergies 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 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 BRT 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 (BRT) 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 and extra incomes, and significantly reducing carbon footprint and air pollution,” says 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.”