Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/221076
Fuel ("CNG Eventually?" continued from page 52) The DOE also reported that gasoline fell 2.6 cents to $3.265. This was the eighth drop in nine weeks, and at publication time, the lowest price this year. "CNG has become an ideal energy source for the future," Swearngin said, adding that, as an alternative fuel, it is economical, abundant in supply and produces about 10 percent of the pollutants typically emitted by traditional gasoline or diesel engines. "Our fuel bill – including fuel for the CNG buses at the [Kansas City, Mo.] airport – would have been $1 million higher annually," he said. "We expect the savings to be even more this year." Swearngin says his agency's goal is to reduce overall consumption of petroleum. In addition to CNG, the city also uses pure battery, electric and hybrid vehicles. However, it doesn't consider any of these alternative vehicles and equipment as special. "Whenever we put an alternately fueled vehicle in a fleet, we always consider them as a normal fleet vehicle," he said. Migrating Toward Alternatives James Crockett, air sweeper products manager for Elgin Sweeper, says the industry is migrating its segment of the equipment market toward offering more sweepers with alternative fuel configurations. The manufacturer currently offers a single-engine sweeper that can be powered by CNG, liquefied natural gas (LNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The manufacturer also offers a CNG- and LPG-fueled four-wheel mechanical sweeper, a CNG mechanical sweeper, and a CNG-fueled four-wheel regenerative air sweeper. The price of compressed natural gas on a diesel gallon equivalent (DGE) per the price of a gallon of diesel has made the technology "modestly attractive in recent times," Crockett says. He also notes that the chassis OEMs are making a conscious effort to CNG For Traditional provide "turnkey" Construction Equipment? CNG-ready chassis Will CNG make its way to straight from traditional construction equipment – the factory. "The "yellow iron?" The issue with replaonly hurdle in this cing construction equipment with market is the slow CNG-powered equipment is availgrowth of the ability, says Sam Swearngin, fleet CNG infrastructure administrator for the City of Kansas that is required to City, Mo. "There isn't a backhoe that make it a stable is natural gas powered," he said. and profitable "It's limited to what we can get our market to serve," hands on. Forklifts are about it." Crockett said. Tim Worman, business development manager for Iowa Molding Tools We Owe It to (IMT), said, "Time will tell. It all Taxpayers depends on what businesses want Jeff Miles, branch to invest in the infrastructure for it." manager of Kansas 54 | www.cedmag.com | Construction Equipment Distribution | December 2013 Although fleet conversion during the last 10 years has been fairly slow, alternatively fueled equipment is starting to pick up. Kansas City, Mo.'s Solid Waste Division makes an effort to use alternative-fueled vehicles and equipment that are operated often, like this CNG-powered recycling truck, one of seven. City Key Equipment Supply Co. (Kansas), says that a municipal customer in management recently told him that its city's No. 1 expense is labor and the second is fuel. Miles quoted his customer: "We owe it to our taxpayers to look at how to save expenses and alternative fuels are an obvious and proven solution." The big cost for CNG vehicles about 10 years ago was the capital investment necessary for installing a quick-fill station, he says. "Now we have companies willing to put in a fuel station just for part of the profit of the fuels being sold," Miles said. Some states – like Kansas – have several natural gas fueling stations throughout the state. Texas, Utah, Oklahoma, California and the Northeast have embraced CNG. Iowa has one filling station in Des Moines, and Minnesota has a couple. Other states don't have any, which means an agency or company would have to build its own fueling station. If there is an "anchor client" that would provide enough business to make economic sense and an extra pump that could be used by others, a natural gas fuel provider may consider building a station in one of these areas, then enabling companies to buy (and dealers to sell) CNG vehicles and equipment because the necessary infrastructure would be in place. There are 12,746 total alternative fuel stations in the United States, excluding private stations – 618 of which are CNG filling stations, excluding private stations. (To see a state-by-state list of where CNG fueling stations are available, go to www.afdc.energy.gov/stations.)