The City of Greensboro will be seeing bluer skies this spring thanks to a significant move towards the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) by the city's fleet services department. The city will soon deploy two rear loading CNG refuse trucks, which will be 'wrapped' in public service messaging promoting the air quality benefits of using CNG. Fueling the city's move to CNG - and the trucks - is a newly installed CNG pumping station at the fleet department's premises. The two trucks will each average about 520 gallons of gasoline equivalent (GGE) of CNG per month.
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| City of Greensboro's new CNG station |
The installed station is a slow-fill system accommodating two trucks, each taking 4 hours to fill. This can easily be accomplished in the evening after refuse hauling is complete. The station was installed with expansion capability - the city will be able to install another similar slow-fill compressor, or move towards a fast fill system. In either case, Steve Simpson, who was formerly Equipment Services Division Manager for the city but is now serving as management consultant until the project is deployed, couldn't be more pleased with the fuel savings benefits:
"Over the past few years, the increased cost of using diesel fuel has had a negative effect on Greensboro's operating budget. The fuel savings from using CNG in our two new class 8 trucks should equate to $10,000 per truck annually, a 50% fuel cost reduction."
Guilford County is currently a non-attainment area for air quality standards. The use of a cleaner burning fuel like natural gas will help reduce some of the pollutants contributing to poor air quality in the Triad. Greensboro's CNG project was funded by the Triangle Clean Cities Program through the Carolina Blue Skies, Green Jobs Initiative (U.S. DOE ARRA), which Clean Transportation Program has been managing for close to two years. The city will host a ribbon cutting and public media event this summer to heighten awareness of this important and valuable investment.
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