Dubai: A petrol station with a ‘clean' twist opened to the public yesterday in the Emirates Hills area that generates half of its energy requirements from renewable sources.
Despite the passing vehicles that will inevitably stop to fill up their tanks, the Enoc Green Station is a self declared zero emissions station, the first in the Middle East.
The station, located opposite the Emirates International School, does not supply biofuel but recovers released vapour from petrol pumps and storage tanks and condenses it back to fuel in a specially designed ‘Green Room', instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.
At Dh18 million, the station cost 20 per cent more to put together than a regular Enoc station and has more than 30 energy efficiency and environmentally focused programmes, said Zaid Al Qufaidi, chief executive officer of Enoc/Eppco retail business stream.
"Our emissions across our network are below the norm but we wanted to go even lower," said Qufaidi.
Solar power
The vapour recovery system recovers 99 per cent of vapour but has only been installed at this station. In the future it could be standard at all Enoc stations, he said.
The site uses solar powered lampposts and LED lights, with a long life span of up to 50,000 hours and low voltage safe against electrical fire hazards. These lamps do not need to be replaced for up to 12 years. The service station will also use sensor type water taps and two-stage flush systems in the toilets.
"In two months, 20,000 litres of fuel was recovered from vapour," said J. Aiysh, co-general manager of TST Electronics.
