Sources: TruStar Energy LLC, Tampa, Fla.; CP staff
Madison, Miss.-based MMC Materials Inc. has rolled out the Southeast’s first compressed natural gas-powered concrete mixer fleet, ramping up for delivery of 12 McNeilus Ngen (Next Generation Initiatives) models with the installation of a TruStar Energy Portable Fuel Station (PFS).
“We got real interested in this from an environmental standpoint and began looking at it over a year ago,” says MMC Central Region Vice President Stanley Mangum, noting that discussions with refuse haulers running CNG vehicles boosted the company’s confidence in the diesel fuel alternative. “We knew we could use CNG that’s made right here at home, and given the price difference between natural gas and diesel, it adds up quickly.”
“We designed and built the PFS for exactly these types of fleets,” adds TruStar Energy Vice President Scott Edelbach. “We knew that some fleet owners needed a portable fueling solution that offered compressor redundancy for reliability, but also a system that was appropriately sized for smaller operations.”
MMC’s new Kenworth-mounted mixers run Cummins-Westport ISX 12-liter engines, introduced earlier this year as a larger offering to the ISL-G—a power package specified on pre-2013 CNG-fueled mixers. MMC Materials enlisted TruStar Energy to install a PFS at its Jackson plant, where infrastructure enables overnight or off-hour fueling of the 12 mixers. The producer will measure CNG versus diesel fuel savings, plus driver productivity improvements, for 12 months, then determine the next steps for a Mississippi fleet of 300-plus mixers.