Fleets Using Natural Gas
Waste Management has been a pioneer in the use of natural gas, already operating more than 1,400 compressed natural gas vehicles. CNG makes a lot of sense for municipal refuse fleets. The quieter engines and cleaner emissions are welcome in residential areas. WM even has “trash to gas” facilities, where landfill methane can be turned into natural gas fuel for the vehicles. This year, natural gas vehicles represent 80 percent of annual new truck purchases and will for the next five years. WM is also building natural gas fueling stations. It currently has 31 with another 17 either in operation or under construction by the end of 2012.
C.R. England Dedicated is leasing five Kenworth T800 tandem-axle day cab tractors powered with the Westport GX 15-liter LNG engine through Paclease, operating in an existing dedicated operation on routes between Ontario, Calif., and Las Vegas. The company chose this route for testing because it’s a natural gas-fueled corridor that includes publicly accessible LNG refueling stations. Stretching from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City and touted earlier this year by President Obama, this corridor is also a key factor in UPS’ LNG adoption in the region.
Ozinga Ready Mix Concrete Inc. replaced aging mixer trucks working from its Chinatown Plant near downtown Chicago with 13 compressed natural gas-powered Kenworth W900S mixers. Each is equipped with the 8.9-liter Cummins Westport ISL G engine, 6-speed Allison 4500RDS automatic transmission and the McNeilus Bridgemaster mixer body. The engines are 5-1/2 decibels quieter than comparable diesel-powered 2007 Cummins engines at peak torque and load and nearly 10 decibels quieter at idle. Ozinga customers have commented about the quietness. And that has significant benefits when placing concrete in residential neighborhoods and at public projects.
In February Dart Transit launched a small fleet of CNG powered tractors dedicated to Andersen Window Corporation. The Eco Tractors run a dedicated route between Andersen’s window and door factory in Bayport, Minnesota and its consolidation center in Menomonie, Wis. To make the Andersen Window dedicated service work, a new CNG fueling station was installed by U.S. Oil at a truckstop near Andersen’s facility in Menomonie. It is the result of a unique partnership between Dart, Andersen, U.S. Oil (a division of U.S. Venture, Inc.), Breakthrough Fuel, Excel Energy as the gas supplier, and the Cedar Country Cenex Cooperative truckstop.
Green Energy Oilfield Services, Fairfield, Texas, took delivery of 60 LNG-powered Peterbilt trucks earlier this year. The company is using the trucks to service XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil and major producer in the Freestone play oilfield in Freestone County, Texas. Fifty trucks are vacuum trucks, used to remove and dispose of formation water, and 10 are winch trucks, used to transport frac tanks. The company is not billing a fuel surcharge, passing on an estimated $5 million in savings annually to XTO Energy, a business strategy that is putting the company in demand as a highly sought after transportation provider to the Texas oilfields.
United Parcel Service is a leader in adoption of alternative fuels and hybrids. In has been using compressed natural gas engines since 1989 and liquefied natural gas engines since 2000. In January, President Obama promoted his proposal for tax incentives for companies that buy natural-gas-powered trucks in a visit to a UPS hub in Las Vegas.
Talon Logistics, the transportation subsidiary of food and fuel retailer Giant Eagle, is running 10 CNG-powered Volvo VNM daycabs powered by 9-liter, 320-horsepower, 1,000 pounds-foot Cummins Westport ISL G engines. The CNG tanks are saddle-mounted, rather than the more traditional cabinet behind the cab. Last fall, Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection announced that Talon Logistics would get a $500,000 grant to replace another 20 diesel-fueled delivery trucks with 20 trucks fueled by compressed natural gas. This will be the first use of heavy-duty trucks in Pennsylvania that feature the new Cummins Westport ISL G 11.9-liter 400-horsepower engine.
Bill Malone, president of Enviro Express in Bridgeport, Conn., was named a 2012 Truck Fleet Innovator for his leadership in alternative fuels. Enviro Express hauls trash for governments to the waste energy plants, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and hauls away the ash to a landfill on the Rhode Island-Massachusetts border about 120 miles away. HIs fleet is made up of about 40 trucks, and 19 of them are powered by natural gas. Not only is Malone buying natural-gas-powered trucks, but he's also opened the first liquefied natural gas fueling facility east of the Mississippi River. Located near busy Interstate 95, it's open to other transportation customers.
Kwik Trip, a convenience store and fuel chain with more than 400 locations in three states, is promoting liquefied and compressed natural gas as fuel source in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and other areas. In addition to moving forward with CNG at its stations, it also currently has 20 natural gas vehicles in its own fleet, with more coming. Among Kwik Trip's fleet are a Kenworth T440 LNG tractor and two Kenworth T440s powered by CNG.
Saddle Creek Corp., a nationwide third-party logistics provider based in Lakeland, Fla., has so far taken deliver of 80 natural gas trucks out of a planned purchase of 120. The Freightliner Business Class M2 112 tractors run on compressed natural gas. The trucks are based at the 3PL's headquarter campus in Lakeland, Fla., and will handle deliveries throughout the Florida peninsula and southern Georgia. A new CNG fueling station was built at the Lakeland campus, the first one built for a for-hire fleet in Florida, it says. The facility is being built and maintained by Clean Energy Fuels.