Walmart Plans to Decarbonize Its Fleet with Renewable Natural Gas

(Chevron) Chevron U.S.A. Inc., announced definitive agreements to supply fuel linked to renewable natural gas for a Walmart Inc. demonstration of Cummins Inc.’s new 15-liter natural gas engine for heavy-duty trucks. As part of the agreements, Walmart will provide heavy-duty trucks for Cummins to integrate with the new 15-liter engine, the X15N™, which runs on CNG. After taking delivery, Walmart will field-test the finished trucks at its distribution center in Fontana, California, with Chevron supplying the trucks with renewable natural gas.

Chevron has partnerships with Brightmark LLC and California Bioenergy LLC to produce renewable natural gas from dairy farms, which under California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard can qualify as carbon negative on a lifecycle basis. Chevron will be responsible for linking the renewable natural gas to the CNG dispensed by Walmart into its natural gas trucks.

“Chevron has positioned itself to help major fleet operators like Walmart in their efforts to decarbonize their transportation operations through the use of CNG linked to renewable natural gas,” said Andy Walz, president of Americas Fuels & Lubricants for Chevron. “As we continue to rapidly grow our renewable natural gas business, we aim to leverage the power of our partnerships to the benefit of new and existing customers who seek lower carbon transportation solutions.”

“Walmart’s collaboration with Chevron and Cummins on the new Cummins 15-liter natural gas engine is one of many technologies we are testing to reach zero emissions in our fleet, part of our broader goal to achieve zero emissions in our operations by 2040,” said Luke McCollum, vice president of Supply Chain Sustainability at Walmart. “Testing CNG linked to renewable natural gas marks a significant stepping stone for Walmart’s path to zero emissions transportation.”

In September 2021, Chevron and Cummins expanded their memorandum of understanding to include new strategic priorities relating to renewable natural gas, with an initial focus on making the transition to natural gas engines easier for fleets by improving fuel availability while allowing them to lower the lifecycle carbon intensity of their operations.

“Cummins is excited to work with Walmart and Chevron on heavy-duty natural gas trucks and fuel availability,” said Puneet Jhawar, General Manager, Natural Gas at Cummins. “The Cummins X15N natural gas powertrain allows for fleets to significantly reduce their emissions footprint starting almost immediately on a large scale with competitive equipment costs, while providing the power, range, and performance characteristics customers expect from Cummins.” READ MORE

Excerpt from Biofuels Digest: But a few years ago, in 2020, Walmart set a goal to achieve zero emissions across Walmart’s global operations by 2040.

3 ways – They are evaluating various attributes of three different fuel types – renewable natural gas, hydrogen and electric. Walmart is piloting solutions not only for over-the-road (OTR) trucks but for refrigerated trailers (also known as reefers) and yard trucks (which move trailers around in the lots), too.

Yard Trucks: In just a few months, Walmart will be the first company in the U.S. to test the capabilities and performance of Capacity’s very first second-generation hydrogen fuel cell yard truck. The truck is manufactured by Capacity in Longview, Texas, and has a range of expected benefits including an operating time of up to 10 hours on a single refuel, faster refuel time and less dependence on the electric charging grid. Plus, they can utilize the same infrastructure as their hydrogen forklifts while producing little to no emissions.

In fact, it’s because of these benefits that they see hydrogen as an option for our long-haul over the road tractors – they will have more to share on that soon. READ MORE