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June 22, 2012

County joins study of natural gas for use in its fleets

By Keith Gushard Meadville Tribune

MEADVILLE — Does it make sense to have area vehicle fleets run on compressed natural gas rather than gasoline or diesel fuel?

That’s a question a group of government entities and businesses are trying to answer since there is an abundance of natural gas available.

Crawford County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to spend $1,500 to join in a feasibility study on the possibility of compressed natural gas as a fuel source. That study is expected to provide an answer by about Aug. 1.

“I think this is appropriate for us to see how this may impact our fueling and transportation,” said Commissioner C. Sherman Allen, noting the county has about 100 vehicles of all types in its fleet.

PENNCREST School District is spearheading the effort to look into the possibility. Other organizations involved in the study are Conneaut and Crawford Central school districts, Vantage Health Care Network, Universal Well Services Inc., Crawford Area Transportation Authority, Allegheny College and National Fuel Gas.

Wilson Engineering Services of Meadville currently is analyzing each organization’s fleet information such as vehicle type, age, miles driven, gallons of fuel purchased, operating profile and overnight locations.

“We’ve got several hundred vehicles involved and we’ve got to get enough to know whether it makes sense,” Tom Wilson of Wilson Engineering Services said in a telephone interview Thursday afternoon. “It’s too early to know because we don’t have all the data. We need to determine for what vehicles it makes sense.”

The information will help each project partner decide whether or not to commit additional resources. Cost of this feasibility study is expected to be $10,000 to be shared among the project partners.

Tim Geibel, executive director of Crawford Area Transportation Authority, said it may make sense for CATA, which has about 30 vehicles in its fleet. It operates fixed route bus service in Meadville and Titusville and shared-ride bus services throughout the county.

“Right now, the gallon equivalent of CNG is less than 50 percent of the cost of a gallon of gas,” Geibel said. “We’re looking at long-term savings.”

Geibel said it wouldn’t be feasible to retrofit or convert its fleet to CNG all at once, but possibly phase in CNG-powered vehicles over a multi-year period.

“We need to know how many are out there and do we have enough volume (as a group),” Geibel said.

John Stansfield, vice president of administration for Universal Well Services, said his firm has more than 700 vehicles and equipment engines that possibly could run on CNG.

Some of its engines on equipment at well sites are 2,250- to 2,500-horsepower units that require a lot of fuel as they run 24 hours a day for potentially months at a time, he said.

“If it would work with CNG, it would be great to cut our fuel costs,” said Stansfield.

While the current feasibility study is focusing on fleet analysis, further study would have to be done on such areas as vehicle technology, fueling location, the availability of fuel and fast-fill or time-fill capabilities to refuel vehicles.



Keith Gushard can be reached at 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.

 

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