A in-house team of financing, engineering, construction, operations, and customer service specialists guide fleet owners through the diesel to natural gas truck power transition, targeting cost-efficient fueling solutions tailored to business needs and budgets. Through consulting, design, site work, infrastructure installation and equipment commissioning services, Clean Energy staff can develop a scalable station plan addressing current and future fleet needs. It typically covers all aspects of a project, from site analysis and customized station design to modifying natural gas vehicle maintenance facilities.
Clean Energy Fuels manufactures the core equipment for its fueling systems; in the case of compressed natural gas fleets, it offers turnkey packages such as the GE CNG in a Box. The highly compact configuration features performance components: core compressor, valves, pumps, monitoring, control, electronics and dispensers. CNG in a Box serves a) fast fill applications, where a single vehicle can be refueled in five- to 10 minutes; or, b) time fill systems, common with mixer, dump and other “return-to-base” vehicles that can be parked overnight or at longer intervals for slow refueling of the station’s full fleet. In time fill systems, each vehicle connects to a parking stall hose, with all truck gradually fueling simultaneously. Fill hoses are connected to a common supply line connected to the compressor. Time fill controls regulate the system pressure and prevent over-pressurization.
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| Clean Energy designed the West Reno Street Plant fuel station around the GE CNG in a Box compressor. At 45-psi inlet pressure, it can produce 5.5 diesel gallon equivalents (DGE) per minute or 340 DGE/hour. Mixer trucks average around 35 to 45 DGE a day; at that rate, Schwarz Ready Mix can schedule time fill refueling for the plant’s 27-space lot. The CNG in a Box can also operate at higher compression rates, enabling a space-constrained ready mixed plant operator to stagger fast fill (five to 10 minutes/truck) fueling schedules around mixers’ idle yard time. Initial CNG-powered vehicles in the Schwarz Ready Mix fleet include Con-Tech Bridge King models, fitted with large diameter dHybrid fuel tanks. |
One of Clean Energy’s latest CNG In a Box installations involves Yukon, Okla.-based Schwarz Ready Mix, which is ramping up its West Reno Street plant in Oklahoma City for time filling of mixers, dumps and cement tanker tractors. The CNG In a Box is equipped with a 400-hp motor, easily equal to diesel gallon equivalents (DGE) compression rate for (overnight) time filling up to 27 vehicles. Refueling capacity is expandable given the equipment design.
West Reno Street is the second CNG fueling station for Schwarz Ready Mix, which installed lower capacity infrastructure at a new central mixed plant in downtown Oklahoma City late last year. The two stations harbor a combined fleet of 16 mixers, eight trailer dumps and two cement tankers. They will support another 10 Peterbilt-mounted, CNG-powered mixers Schwarz Ready Mix has on order for fall delivery. — Clean Energy Fuels, Newport Beach, Calif., 949/437-1000; www.cleanenergyfuels.com