UPS Experience With LNG: Beaver, UT, to Salt Lake City, UT/Las Vegas, NV

The Oil Drum has a long article explaining liquid natural gas (LNG). Very, very basic. After reading it, be sure to read the comments. The best comment provided an overview of the UPS experience in Utah:

• 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: some of the math didn't ring true for me (diesel truck tank, 200 gallons; barely enough to make a 400-mile trip?]. Other than that, seemed to be a great article and reasonable comments.

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.