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PG&E Adds Five Class 8 LNG Trucks with Westport HPDI to its Fleet
16 January 2008
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has added five Class 8 heavy-duty liquid natural gas (LNG) trucks to its alternative fuel fleet. PG&E is the first utility in the nation to put the Kenworth T800 LNG-powered trucks into service.
The Kenworth LNG-powered trucks will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15-20% over equivalent diesel engines.
PG&E purchased the Class 8 heavy-duty trucks from Bay Area Kenworth as diesel units and collaborated on the upgrade to liquid natural gas operation with Kenworth and Westport Innovations Inc. The trucks use Westport’s High Pressure Direct Injection (HPDI). (Earlier post.) HPDI uses a small amount of diesel to ignite the natural gas in the engine and provides diesel-equivalent torque, horsepower and a range of 400-450 miles.
The LNG-powered trucks are based at PG&E’s Fremont service warehouse from where all the utility’s supplies are shipped and are being put into service for routes to Fresno, Marysville, Ukiah and Templeton. Four of the Class 8 LNG trucks will be used for two shifts per day, representing approximately 800 miles per day per truck. Using LNG will cut the fuel costs for these trucks by approximately 50%. The fifth LNG truck serves as a customer demonstration truck to educate PG&E’s large trucking customers about the economic and environmental benefits of LNG-powered heavy-duty trucks.
PG&E operates 36 natural gas fueling stations throughout its northern and central California service territory, 27 of which are open to the public. The new LNG-powered trucks fuel up at PG&E’s Fremont Service Center from a proven above-ground LNG fueling system produced by Chart Industries.
January 16, 2008 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: arnold | January 16, 2008 at 03:32 PM
The G in PG&E is gas, natural gas. Vehicles that have a fixed route scheme can benefits from LNG. There are lots of trucks offloading ships and going to local freight forwarding warehouses at the port of L.A. Considering the air quality, or lack of it in L.A., this would be a good thing.
Posted by: sjc | January 21, 2008 at 12:38 PM
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Meaningfull reductions in emissions means a lot, this is a great example and from his quite infant area of endeavour, I suspect that as primary manufacturers gain experience with natural gas we will see greater benifits.