- 36 long-haul trucks
- the day shift: from Beaver, UT, to Las Vegas, NV (225 miles)
- the night shift: from Beaver UT, to Salt Lake City, UT (200 miles)
- US government kicked in $4 million for buying the trucks
- biggest drawback, according to the drivers: frequent refueling
- with diesel, one full tank would nearly be enough for a complete round trip. Now they have to re-fuel at each stop. [Diesel tank about 200 gallons; one gallon of diesel = 1.7 gallons of LNG; total LNG capacity is 190 LNG gallons; translates to 111 gallons of diesel equivalent (DGE -- diesel gallon equivalent).]
- fueling: only with a certified individual; must wear a helmet with large plastic face guard to protect against splashing (-260 degrees temperature)
- typically a LNG truck will cost between $30,000-$100,000 more than a typical diesel semi-tractor
- the mileage these UPS trucks are averaging is about 5-5.2 mpg on gallon of DGE of LNG. It turns out to be about 8-10% less than typical diesel engines
Comment: as "good"as CNG/LNG sounds, I just did not get a warm fuzzy for using CNG/LNG as a transportation fuel after reading this article and/or the comments. It really will be interesting to see how it all plays out in North Dakota with Heckmann/Power Fuels.
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