NGVAmerica News Week in Review: July 13, 2015

• NGV Achievement Award Nominations Due in Five Days
• 2015 North American NGV Conference & Expo Scam Alert!
• Massachusetts TA Contracts with New Flyer for 325 Alt Fuel Buses
• Orange County Inks Deal for 218 New Flyer CNG Buses
• Big Blue Bus Awarded $5.9 Million for New CNG Buses in California
• Westport Completes HPDI Technology Program with Daimler AG
• Questar Fueling Completes CNG Station for Central Freight Lines
• Clean Energy to Support Waste Customers with 36 Station Projects in 2015
• GAIN Clean Fuel Enters Partnership for Three Stations in Texas
• Washington Gas and Trillium CNG to Open Public Natural Gas Fueling Station
• New CNG Facility to Support Northeast Virtual Pipeline System
• NGVi Launches NGV Industry’s First E-Learning Course
• SoCalGas and CTA to Advance Natural Gas in Trucking
• Shell LNG Renews ATA Featured Product Agreement
• GE Capital, Canada and Gaz Métro Team up to Promote Natural Gas
• New Super LNG Carrier to Use Boil-Off Gas as Fuel Source
• Port of Gothenburg Offers Natural Gas Bunkering

 

NGV Achievement Award Nominations Due in Five Days

NGVAmerica issues its last call for nominations for the 23^rd Annual NGV Achievement Awards, which will be presented on Tuesday during lunch, September 15 at the 2015 North American NGV Conference & Expo at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. The awards recognize individuals and organizations for their outstanding contributions to the advancement of natural gas as a vehicular fuel. They are awarded to stakeholders from all segments: industry equipment and service suppliers, policymakers, customers and clean air/clean transportation advocate-allies. Your submittal is a nice way to honor your nominee, support the industry and get a great success story out for the public to see. Note that only NGVAmerica members and Clean Cities Coordinators may make nominations; although, nominees are not required to be NGVAmerica members.

Deadline: Nominations are due Friday, July 17.  Paperwork may be downloaded from the NGVAmerica website here. Please direct all inquiries to Tom Sheehan at 207.925.1136 or tsheehan@www.ngvamerica.org.

 

2015 North American NGV Conference & Expo Scam Alert!

NGVAmerica has been alerted that unauthorized housing companies have been contacting attendees and exhibitors of the 2015 North American NGV Conference & Expo offering cheaper rates at the hotels in the NGVAmerica block. This practice, also known as “room pirating, is a scam. VIP Meetings & Conventions is the only official housing company. Do not give any other company your personal or financial information, and please notify NGVAmerica or VIP Meetings & Conventions if you have been solicited by another company.

To reserve your room with VIP Meetings & Conventions, call 800.926.3976 or email reservations@vipmeetings.com. For more information about the 2015 North American Conference & Expo, visit the show website at www.ngvshow.com.

 

Massachusetts TA Contracts with New Flyer for 325 Alt Fuel Buses
June 29, 2015

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) Board of Directors approved a contract for the manufacture and delivery of 325 new replacement buses for the MBTA fleet. The $222.2 million contract with New Flyer calls for delivery of new 40-foot Low Floor Hybrid and CNG buses to begin in July 2016, with all buses in service by June 2017. The 325 buses will replace a current fleet of CNG buses nearing the end of their expected 12-year service life.

“This is a wise investment that meets an urgent need to retire an aging portion of our bus fleet that has presented significant maintenance challenges and deliver new, top quality replacements,” said MBTA Interim GM Frank DePaola.

The contract is expected to be funded with 80 percent Federal Formula funds and 20 percent MBTA Revenue Bond funds. The MBTA will engage in a detailed design review process with New Flyer. A pilot bus will be manufactured and delivered for review and inspection, followed by manufacture and delivery of the 325 new buses. The MBTA total service fleet includes more than 1,000 buses.

 

Orange County Inks Deal for 218 New Flyer CNG Buses
July 8, 2015

New Flyer announced that Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) has approved two contracts to purchase 218 Xcelsior CNG heavy-duty buses.

The contracts are firm orders for 202 XN40 Xcelsior 40-foot buses, with options for 10 more and 16 XN60 60-foot articulated Xcelsior buses. OCTA has a growing fleet of New Flyer CNG buses, and with these awards will increase their active New Flyer fleet to 556 vehicles.

“New Flyer is proud to have over two decades of CNG design and manufacturing expertise and equally as honored at the partnership that we have developed with Orange County,” said Paul Soubry, President and Chief Executive Officer of New Flyer.

 

Big Blue Bus Awarded $5.9 Million for New CNG Buses in California

 Big Blue Bus (BBB) has announced it will receive $6.9 million from the Federal Transit Administration’s Section 5307 discretionary fund to upgrade the agency’s fleet and create bus stops for its new Expo related service.

Big Blue Bus was given $5.9 million to upgrade the agency’s all-alternative fuel bus fleet. The funds will purchase nine replacement CNG buses. The new vehicles will replace buses that have been on the road more than 12 years. Big Blue Bus also received $1 million for new bus stop improvements.

Big Blue Bus operates a fleet of 189 vehicles transporting more than 61,000 passengers daily. The entire fleet operates on alternative fuels, including both LNG and CNG.

 

Westport Completes HPDI Technology Program with Daimler AG
July 9, 2015

Westport Innovations has completed an engineering program with Daimler AG to develop and assess Westport High Pressure Direct Injection (HPDI) system for a Daimler heavy duty engine. The prototype HPDI engine met all technical targets and resulted in a payment of approximately $2.7 million by Daimler to Westport.

Westport HPDI 2.0 natural gas technology is capable of delivering performance and fuel economy equivalent to that of current high performance diesel-fueled engines, but with diesel substitution of over 90 percent. In addition to delivering performance and fuel economy, Westport HPDI 2.0 is designed to meet the latest in stringent emission regulations, including Euro VI and EPA 2014.

 

Questar Fueling Completes CNG Station for Central Freight Lines
July 7, 2015

Questar Fueling has opened a new CNG fueling facility in San Antonio, Texas. The station will serve up to 60 class-8 natural gas-powered trucks operated by Central Freight Lines. The station, which Questar Fueling owns and operates, is also open to other fleets and the general public.

Central Freight Lines is projected to use more than 1 million DGEs of natural gas per year. The majority of the trucks will use a private time-fill facility in which 60 trucks can fill while parked. The remainder will use a six-lane, high-speed-fueling station with public access for anyone driving an NGV.

“This is the third of four CNG-fueling facilities we will have across Texas,” said Don Orr, president and CEO of Central Freight Lines. “Questar Fueling is helping to make our transition to natural gas much easier. Our commercial-private partnership with the company has resulted in convenient and reliable CNG fueling for our fleet of 170 CNG trucks. Fueling with natural gas is also helping us operate more efficiently, reduce pollution and become less dependent on foreign-oil imports as we support our home-state economy.”

 

Clean Energy to Support Waste Customers with 36 Station Projects in 2015
July 09, 2015

Clean Energy has completed 14 station construction projects for refuse customers in the first six months of the year and expects to complete another 22 by the end of 2015, which will enable new or expanding refuse fleets transitioning to natural gas. These stations support large waste companies such as Waste Management, Republic Services and Progressive Waste Solutions, as well as regional companies.

In addition to revenue received from the construction of new stations and expansion of existing stations and the recurring revenues from fuel sales and operating and maintaining stations for long-­‐term refuse customers, companies are taking advantage of Clean Energy’s Facility Modification Services unit. Clean Energy has been contracted by Waste Management, Republic Services and others to upgrade vehicle maintenance facilities to comply with all local and national code requirements for a number of refuse customers.

“The second half of each year typically provides the most robust activity in station construction for our refuse customers as this is when their new trucks arrive and we believe 2015 will be no exception,” said Andrew J. Littlefair, president and CEO of Clean Energy.

Clean Energy has relationships with over 125 individual waste companies and municipality waste divisions in North America, and the company says over 9,400 refuse trucks fuel at a Clean Energy built or maintained station daily.

Clean Energy has produced a short video about their refuse business, which is available here.

 

GAIN Clean Fuel Enters Partnership for Three Stations in Texas

GAIN Clean Fuel is partnering with FastFlow CNG, a division of Independence Fuel Systems (IFS) to locate three GAIN Clean Fuel CNG in Texas. Two of the GAIN stations will be co-located with existing Fast Flow CNG facilities, one along Interstate 20 in Longview and the other on Highway 59 in Carthage. The third GAIN Clean Fuel/Fast Flow CNG co-location is under construction along Interstate 45 in Centerville. It is expected to be open in late June.

“This is an exciting opportunity for us to further our mission of helping build America’s energy independence by providing high quality CNG stations,” said IFS Marketing Director, Matt Russell. “Together we can continue to encourage carriers to convert to CNG.”

These three locations will accept fleet cards for truck convenience and, they are open for use by other fleets and the general public.

 

Washington Gas and Trillium CNG to Open Public Natural Gas Fueling Station
July 9, 2015

At a foral ribbon cutting ceremony held in Frederick, Maryland, Washington Gas celebrated the opening of the first of three public CNG fueling stations. The station is owned by Washington Gas and will be operated and maintained by Trillium CNG.

“I applaud Washington Gas for introducing the first publicly accessible compressed natural gas fueling station in the county,” said Frederick County Executive, Jan Gardner.

The Frederick station will be open to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week and will accept all major credit and fuel cards. Later this summer, Washington Gas and Trillium CNG will open a second public CNG fueling station in Forestville, Maryland. A third station is being planned for the District of Columbia.

 

New CNG Facility to Support Northeast Virtual Pipeline System
July 7, 2015

Seven months after commencing construction, Direct Energy Business and Xpress Natural Gas (XNG) announced that the CNG production facility and distribution terminal in Manheim, New York is now fully operational. The facility is able to serve business and municipal customers hundreds of miles away.

The state-of-the-art Manheim CNG Center can deliver up to 45 trucks per day of natural gas with an annual peak capacity of 5.7 billion cubic feet (BCF), and features redundant design to ensure reliable service. The Center will provide CNG to remote businesses and municipalities that cannot sufficiently be served from existing pipeline infrastructure. With this facility, commercial and industrial customers throughout the tristate area will enjoy access to an affordable and clean fuel source for heating and manufacturing processes.

Direct Energy Business has teamed with XNG, the operator of a large fleet of high capacity composite CNG trailers, to accelerate the availability and benefits of natural gas to customers.

Businesses across a broad range of industries are already recognizing the benefits of CNG both as a primary and peak serving fuel source.

 

NGVi Launches NGV Industry’s First E-Learning Course

Natural Gas Vehicle Institute (NGVi), an ASE CASE-accredited technical training provider for the CNG and LNG industry, announced the release of its NGV Technician and Fleet Operations Safety Training as an e-learning option. The course, designed for NGV technicians and other fleet or dealership operations personnel, is accessible through an interactive Learning Management System, providing students with a convenient way of learning independently and at their own pace.

NGV Technician and Fleet Operations Safety Training is the foundational course for every natural gas vehicle technician. Like its classroom equivalent, the e-learning course provides students with fundamental information they need to both understand and safely work on and around CNG and LNG vehicles.

“Because of the unique properties of natural gas and the fuel system components of natural gas vehicles, even seasoned vehicle technicians need this essential training before they begin maintaining NGVs,” said Leo Thomason, Executive Director and lead instructor at NGVi.

NGV Fleet Operations Safety E-Learning is approximately two hours in length and is organized into eight modules. The course is self-paced with a quick knowledge check following each module, and a final exam at the end of the course. Individuals who complete the course, and pass the exam, receive an NGVi certificate of completion.

Details about the training are available on the NGVi website.

 

SoCalGas and CTA to Advance Natural Gas in Trucking
July 8, 2015

Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) will team with the California Trucking Association (CTA) to help expand the awareness of the economic and environmental benefits of natural gas fuels for heavy-duty trucking and goods movement.

“SoCalGas is pleased to join with the California Trucking Association to help its members learn more about the many ways natural gas fueling and clean natural gas engine technologies can help them save money, clean up our air, and mitigate the environmental impact of goods movement,” said Rodger Schwecke, vice president of customer solutions for SoCalGas.

A recent report by the Consumer Federation of America shows fuel costs are the single largest component of transportation costs, representing over one-third of the total cost. As transportation costs pass through to consumers, fuel is the largest component of the pass-through. Reducing transportation fuel cost benefits consumers and the resulting net savings for consumers gives them more discretionary income, which stimulates economic activity in other sectors to produce a significant positive economic multiplier.

SoCalGas is hosting a series of free natural gas trucking workshops through November at locations in Los Angeles and San Diego. Fleet operators who have already transitioned to natural gas-powered trucks will be at the workshops to share their first-hand experiences.

For workshop questions, please call 818.414.9329. To register online, please visit the natural gas trucking workshop information website or visit www.socalgas.com.

 

Shell LNG Renews ATA Featured Product Agreement
July 10, 2015

The American Trucking Associations announced that Shell LNG will continue to be part of ATA’s Featured Product program for a second straight year. Shell LNG fuel is now available at two additional TravelCenters of America truck fueling stations in Texas, bringing the total to five sites within the U.S. These stations are located in San Antonio and Dallas and follow on the heels of the opening of Shell LNG fueling lanes in Baytown, Texas as well as Lafayette, Louisiana in March this year. The Baytown, San Antonio and Dallas stations are strategically located in the Texas Triangle, a region with heavy truck traffic.

“In today’s marketplace, the increased demand for sustainable freight transport has more carriers moving their fleets towards alternative fuels,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves.

ATA’s Featured Product list is available here.

 

GE Capital, Canada and Gaz Métro Team up to Promote Natural Gas
July 6, 2015

GE Capital, Canada and Gaz Métro Transport Solutions (GMTS), a subsidiary of Gaz Métro, have signed a strategic agreement that will facilitate the trucking industry’s adoption of natural gas as a fuel in Eastern Canada. GE Capital has been providing wholesale and retail financing to the country’s commercial trucking sector for 35 years. Since its creation in 2010, GMTS has become a leader in the alternative fuels space in Québec, both for the advisory role it provides to companies and for its development of natural gas refueling stations.

Under the agreement, fleet operators will work with GMTS for natural gas supply and purchase and with GE Capital to secure loans or leases for natural gas vehicles.

“This agreement reinforces GMTS’s turn-key approach by adding a financial partner to accompany the fleet operators in their transition to natural gas,” said Luc Génier, president of the board of directors of GMTS. “We are confident that combining our respective expertise will have a positive effect on the adoption of natural gas as a fuel for the trucking industry in Eastern Canada.”

 

New Super LNG Carrier to Use Boil-Off Gas as Fuel Source
June 26, 2015

Gasum and Anthony Veder have struck a long term agreement for a state of the art 636,000 cb. ft.  LNG carrier. The vessel will be constructed at German shipyard Neptun Werft and will be delivered the last quarter 2017. This vessel will use the LNG boil-off gas as a fuel for its main and auxiliary engines, which makes the vessel fully compliant with the most stringent emission regulations and environmentally friendly in operation.

The ship’s specific purpose is to bring LNG to two LNG terminals that are currently being constructed in Finland and will be completed in 2016 and 2018. One terminal will be located in Tornio, which is in the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea. This requires one vessel to have the highest ice class notation (1A SUPER) and COLD notation to allow the vessel to safely and reliably trade in the extreme winter weather conditions that occur in that region.

 

Port of Gothenburg Offers Natural Gas Bunkering
July 2, 2015

Ships powered by LNG can now bunker at the Port of Gothenburg. New regulations for LNG bunkering have been introduced by the Gothenburg Port Authority in collaboration with the Port of Rotterdam.

New bunkering regulations for ships operating on LNG have been drafted by the Gothenburg Port Authority and the Port of Rotterdam together with the Swedish Transport Agency. The regulations will allow cargo ships to bunker LNG at a cargo terminal and are the first general regulations to be introduced in Sweden.

“We firmly believe that liquefied natural gas is the marine fuel of the future,” said Dan-Erik Andersson, vice president operations at the Port of Gothenburg Energy Port. “The new regulations will have a key role to play in bringing added momentum to our region.”

There are major environmental benefits to be gained from using LNG in shipping. Sulphur and particle emissions are reduced to almost zero, nitrogen emissions are reduced by 85–90 percent and carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent. Natural gas will come from terminals outside Gothenburg for the time being; however, there are plans to build an import terminal for LNG at the Port of Gothenburg.