Posted on 03/26/2013 6:03:23 AM PDT by thackney
Allentown's Lehigh Gas Partners plans to open up to 20 publicly accessible compressed natural gas fueling locations over the next five years, the company announced Monday.
Lehigh Gas, which operates, leases and/or supplies gasoline to more than 800 gas stations and convenience stores in the eastern U.S., dipped its toe in the natural gas fueling industry in September, cutting the ribbon on its second and third natural gas fueling stations outside Philadelphia.
A fourth location, on Route 309 in Whitehall Township, should be up and running in a couple of weeks, said Phil Lutkewitte, Lehigh Gas' alternative fuels manager. Lehigh Gas is developing that station, which would be the first in the Lehigh Valley, itself.
Lehigh Gas will partner with Clean Energy Fuels, the nation's largest provider of natural gas for transportation, to identify appropriate locations for up to 20 future stations. Those stations will serve mostly regional compressed natural gas fleets of shuttles, taxis and small to mid-sized trucks.
"The sweet spot right now is for those medium-sized to large fleet operators, that is largely because of the equipment that is available," Lutkewitte said, referring to the available vehicles.
Compressed natural gas fuel distribution is a growing market. Because it is priced lower than gasoline, CNG fuel offers companies a way to cut vehicle fleet fuel cost, but it hasn't caught on with individual consumers because there are few fueling stations and passenger car options are limited. Honda currently offers the only CNG-fueled car, Lutkewitte said.
Clean Energy has years of experience in the business and will help Lehigh Gas locate its CNG stations in areas where there are fleet customers to service, and will also help promote the stations, Lutkewitte said. Clean Energy operates natural gas fueling stations at Newark and Philadelphia international airports.
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.mcall.com ...
Is this option available to privately owned vehicles used for non-commercial purposes?
What are the comparative costs per mile for fuel between gasoline/Diesel fuel as compared to compressed natural gas?
Can natural-gas fueled vehicles be produced at a competitive price, or shall these vehicles be taxed separately? Is it economically feasible to convert existing vehicles?
Only $3500 for a home CNG refueling station!
http://jalopnik.com/121381/more-on-hondas-cng-home-refueling-station
Or drive 15-20-30 miles to a commercial refueling station.
I don’t think we’re there yet for individual consumers. Even if CNG is half the cost/mile of gasoline it will take a lot of driving to justify the extra cost for home refueling and/or the inconvenience of using a commercial refueling station. Plus, I figure the vehicle sysem will in of itself cost more than a standard powered vehicle.
And, as always with these ‘green vehicle’ schemes, a CNG home station is a no-go for apartments, condos, dorm dwellers, etc.
Consumer Reports
The natural-gas alternative
The pros & cons of buying a CNG-powered car
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/03/the-natural-gas-alternative/index.htm
Yes. For example:
Honda Civic GX
http://automobiles.honda.com/civic-sedan/civic-natural-gas.aspx
What are the comparative costs per mile for fuel between gasoline/Diesel fuel as compared to compressed natural gas?
In EPA fuel-economy terms, the CNG achieves 27 and 38 mpg (in gasoline-gallon equivalence) compared with 28/39 for the Civic LX with the five-speed automatic and 44/44 for the hybrid. We saw 32 mpg in our Civic CNG test car, an improvement of 1 mpg compared with the EPA combined figure.
In the Civic CNG’s favor is the ridiculously low price of its fuel. The national average for CNG in January 2012 (the most recent month of the EPA’s regular reports) was $2.13 per equivalent gasoline gallon. In EPA highway figures and using the most recent national average price of $3.52 per gallon for regular gasoline, the Civic LX and hybrid cost 9.0 and 8.0 cents per mile compared with just 5.6 cents per mile for the CNG.
2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas Car & Driver Review
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2012-honda-civic-natural-gas-test-review
Can natural-gas fueled vehicles be produced at a competitive price, or shall these vehicles be taxed separately?
There is added cost. The fuel has less energy per volume and requires high pressure storage.
Is it economically feasible to convert existing vehicles?
I think it would take you a lot of miles to take a used vehicle and pay for the conversion. It may make more economic sense if you have fueling capability to consider it when making the next purchase.
Probably not a lot. Tankage is about the only large difference. Some small changes to fuel lines and different injectors should be all that is necessary in a spark-ignition system.
When I lived in Anchorage in an apartment before I moved up my family, I had a receptacle outside wired back to my apartment for an engine block heater. That receptacle was fed from my breaker panel and therefore part of my electric bill. It is reasonable to see original build-outs including some electrical service for a few electric cars. It would not likely be worth it for retrofits.
If this were an area where natural gas is used at the complex but not individually metered, it may work out to put in a small commercial unit; swipe your credit car and fill. A complex would likely be buying gas cheaper than an individual homeowner giving some margin to cover costs.
Honda charges $5650 more than for a similarly equipped Civic EX, or $26,925.
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2012-honda-civic-natural-gas-test-review
Yeah I looked at those partially because they are manufactured close by here in Indiana.
For a retired person who doesn’t drive all that many miles, the economics aren’t too favorable.
A home compression unit would give you mobility in event of petroleum shortages (remnants of bad memories from my 70s experience) but probably no cost savings.
You just have to be able to predict what the price of Gasoline, and Natural Gas, will be in a few years.
Ah, having the apartment/condo complex provide a CNG filling station, probably by contracting with a third party, might be feasible. However, you would either have to pay more in your rent or condo fee or pay more for the gas charge.
Question: Is this propulsion natural gas the same as my water heater natural gas? I’m wondering about the apartment/condo complex getting the natural gas to their site. Wouild it be via the current gas pipeline system? (Which would mean more system capacity) Or would they need huge storage tanks on or near their site? Either way, I see considerable cost in providing the facilities necessary for just the small number of vehicles in an apartment/condo/dorm complex.
Q 2: If my automobile-sized compressed gas tank is “empty”, approx. how long for a fully compressed fill?
I still think over-the-road CNG trucks and truck stops w/ facilities open to the public is a good in-road into beginning a public CNG network.
Yes, however, to provide enough fuel for a reasonable range, it is greatly compressed, up to 3,600 psi.
Wouild it be via the current gas pipeline system?
I think so.
Or would they need huge storage tanks on or near their site?
I think most short refueling times will be accomplished by pre-compressing the fuel prior to connecting to the vehicle. So they will need some storage, but perhaps the whole station, compressor and storage could fit in a pre-packed 40' shipping container or similar sized frame.
Q 2: If my automobile-sized compressed gas tank is “empty”, approx. how long for a fully compressed fill?
There are home based refueling stations available that slowly compress a fuel tank overnight. Commercial operation such as service station operation refueling takes about the same amount of time as it does for a typical gasoline-fueled car.
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20101215/carnews/101219958#ixzz2OewarV6p
The long haul guys are using LNG mostly.
Trucks that return to the same service center each night like UPS or garbage are more with CNG.
I think the progression will be:
1) local urban service fleets (both trucks and buses).
2) long haul trucks (truck stops along Interstates and similar, non-IS highways).
There are already quite a few urban fleet facilities going in, and many of these are also (at least somewhat) available to the public.
With both of the above, there will probably be a continuous trickle of home-compression units for those whose neighborhoods and homes already have "piped-in" gas, but as station availability increases, those will probably peak and decline.
Oh, I didn’t know that. So liquified gas isn’t natural gas in super-cold form?
And, doesn’t the liquified gas become free gas before the truck gets filled? But then, if it isn’t the same type of gas I suppose it would have diferent combustion properties than conventional natural gas.
I found that PECO has fueling stations available for public use:
LNG is Liquid Natural Gas. It is pure Methane chilled down to -260°F.
The cryogenic liquid is pumped onto the trucks and stored in insulated tanks. The truck fuel system takes the LNG, allows it to warm to vapors for injection in the engine. LNG will not ignite without warming to a vapor first.
It is essentially the same natural gas brought to your home, but in a more pure methane form. The process of chilling down to -260°F removes other trace components commonly found in Natural Gas.
If you see posts of interest to Pennsylvanians, please ping me.
Thanks!
Thanks brityank for the heads up
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