COTE D’IVOIRE
Scania has launched a new biodiesel pilot project in Côte d’Ivoire, aimed at reducing emissions and creating new jobs. Scania West Africa has worked with partners including TotalEnergies to inaugurate the new biodiesel pilot in the country’s capital, Abidjan. The project aims to dramatically reduce emissions from public transport and create jobs through locally produced biofuels.
Sustainably produced biofuels from waste are currently seen 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%, says Scania, and by even more when used as biogas. In 2017, the company 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 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,” said 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. 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 to provide fast, reliable and comfortable public transport.
“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,” said Nicolas. “We are proud to be part of this innovative and sustainable solution that will benefit both the people of the city and the planet.”
