Stadtwerke Augsburg (SWA), the public utility in Augsburg, Germany, has acquired six new Mercedes Citaro NGT buses. As with all SWA buses, the engine is environmentally friendly and CO2-neutral with bio natural gas (RNG). The values of nitrogen oxide emissions for natural gas are up to 90 percent lower than for diesel. Particulate matter is not an issue with natural gas.
Since March 2016, a total of 29 of the SWA’s 83 buses have been replaced by the more modern vehicles
“Our buses make a positive contribution to the air quality in Augsburg,” says SWA’s Managing Director. Walter Casazza. “Augsburg has the most environmentally friendly bus fleet in a major German city.”
The fact that the new buses are particularly eco-friendly on the road has already been confirmed in a study. In the field test, the Institute for Applied Commercial Vehicle Research and Exhaust Gas Analysis (Belicon) at Landshut University of Applied Sciences had measured significantly lower emissions with nitrogen oxides or carbon dioxide than with all other engine types.
Citaro NGT
The buses are fitted with the M 936 G natural-gas engine. It delivers the same performance as a diesel engine while setting standards with respect to noise and exhaust emissions. The engine is especially compact and lightweight. It is deployed in both the Mercedes-Benz Citaro NGT rigid bus and the Citaro G NGT articulated bus (NGT = Natural Gas Technology).
The vertically installed six-cylinder mono-fuel engine runs on compressed natural gas (CNG). It has an output of 222 kW (302 hp) at 2000 rpm while delivering maximum torque of 1200 Nm consistently from 1200 to 1600 rpm. In some cases, it undercuts the Euro VI emission limits considerably.
Source: Stadwerke Augsburg and Daimler
