HOUSTON
— GE and Clean Energy Fuels will collaborate to expand the infrastructure for
natural gas transportation in the United States. The agreement supports Clean
Energy’s efforts in developing “America’s Natural Gas Highway,” a fueling network
that will enable trucks to operate on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) coast to
coast. Truck fleets often can reduce fuel costs by more than 25% and lower
emissions with LNG.
Clean
Energy Fuels will initially purchase two MicroLNG plants from GE Oil & Gas.
The plug-and-play modular units rapidly liquefy natural gas with minimal physical
footprint and support fueling stations along critical transportation corridors
that run across the U.S. GE Energy Financial Services is providing up to $200
million in financing for the two GE MicroLNG plants.
Clean Energy launches the Road to Natural Gas
Clean Energy expects to complete approximately 70 LNG stations by the end of 2012, with more planned for next year to serve the movement of goods along major transportation corridors throughout the U.S. While CNG, or compressed natural gas, is primarily used in cars, buses and smaller trucks, the LNG fueling being rolled out at Clean Energy’s stations is targeted at long-haul, heavy-duty trucks, which have the advantage of longer driving ranges while not impacting tractor weight and incremental costs. In 2013, four major manufacturers will introduce the Cummins Westport 12-liter LNG engine, which is the optimum size for long-haul Class 8 trucks.
The
first two MicroLNG plants will produce up to 250,000 gallons per day. The plant
is designed to be expanded up to 1 million gallons per day as adoption and
demand increases. The LNG produced by the MicroLNG plants will be used primarily
at Pilot-Flying J truck stops that serve truckers across the country. The two
GE MicroLNG plants are targeted to begin operation in 2015. The two companies
are currently assessing the best locations for these first two LNG plants.
“Our
MicroLNG plant was born from the same turbomachinery technology that has made
GE a success in large LNG compression such as in the world-scale plants in
Qatar and Australia. By taking this technology and reengineering it so that
it’s modular and highly efficient, we are able to help customers such as Clean
Energy,” says Dan Heintzelman, president and CEO of GE Oil & Gas.
Compressed natural gas public access stations coming to Atlanta
GE’s MicroLNG plant can liquefy natural gas at any point along a gas distribution network, making it ideal for supporting the fueling of vehicles in remote locations by reducing the impact of long distance fuel transport. This MicroLNG technology is part of GE’s expanding technology offerings in the natural gas-for-transportation sector.
The
new GE MicroLNG system that will be used by Clean Energy will produce 250,000
gallons of LNG per day, or about 54 million DGEs (diesel gallon equivalents)
per year with the built-in capability for further expansion, which is a 67%
increase over the capacity of the breakthrough MicroLNG plant that GE Oil &
Gas first introduced in January of 2012.