UrBC, Chelyabinsk, November 8, 2017. MMK Group’s Avtotransportnoye Upravlenie is now trying out gas and diesel fuel as the primary fuel for its BelAZ trucks, MMK Information, PR & Advertising Department reports.

The trial runs of gas-and-diesel-fueled BelAZ trucks began as early as 2016. The experiment proved successful, so the company hopes to replace up to 40% of diesel fuel with the gas alternative in the future. According to company experts, reduced environmental impact is seen as the project’s most significant outcome.

Following the trial runs, MMK, Novatek, Gig Engineering, and Avtotransportnoye Upravlenie signed a long-term agreement to design the suitable equipment and get all the approvals necessary to operate gas-and-diesel-fueled vehicles.

‘So far, one pilot BelAZ truck has been reequipped for gas fuel, and we are currently coordinating things to get a gas filling station and to have the personnel trained accordingly. In fact, the company started thinking about the alternative as early as a couple of years ago. First, our light passenger vehicles used for international forwarding switched to gas fuel; next, we bought a number of new GAZel trucks that had all the necessary gas fuel appliances in them,’ says the company’s acting director Alexander Krupnov.