Enviro Express, a Bridgeport, Conn.-based firm providing solid waste collection, transfer and recycling services for several area municipalities, is converting most of its fleet of tractors to liquidfied natural gas-powered Kenworth T800s. The company recently opened an LNG fueling station to provide liquefied and compressed natural gas fuel for its fleet and to the public, is the first one of its kind east of the Mississippi River, according to the Greater New Haven Clean Cities Coalition.
Enviro Express has purchased 18 T800 LNG trucks from MTC Kenworth in Ridgefield Park, N.J. A dozen of the fleet’s Kenworth LNG trucks were displayed at the recent event, which included the attendance of U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.); Mark S. Smith, vehicle technology deployment manager for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Clean Cities Program; and Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch.
“We’re pleased to have these T800 LNG trucks in our fleet,” says Bill Malone, president of Enviro Express. “They will benefit the air quality in our communities by reducing the emissions of our fleet operation. Plus, we’re doing our part to make our country a little less dependent on imported oil, since the fuel these Kenworths will run on comes from America.” An added benefit is that LNG fuel typically may cost an estimated $1 per gallon less than the diesel fuel equivalent.
The T800’s 15-liter 450-hp Westport GX engine uses 5 percent diesel and 95 percent LNG. To help prepare Enviro Express for the trucks’ operation and maintenance, authorized dealer MTC Kenworth held a three-day training session for the fleet’s service technicians and drivers.
The trucks will haul ash in frameless dump trailers from a municipal garbage incineration plant in Bridgeport to a regional landfill 110 miles away. They will make two trips per day, with each running about 135,000 miles annually. Twelve of the T800 LNG trucks went into service immediately after the event. The remaining six entered service soon thereafter.
Enviro Express’ new fueling station and purchase of the T800 LNG trucks are part of a four-year $29.8 million program involving federal and private funding called the Connecticut Clean Cities Future Fuels Project. The station, which has equipment to capture, compress and store natural gas from the LNG as it evaporates during storage, will allow other companies, government agencies and transit agencies to deploy more CNG and LNG vehicles. Federal funding for the station and LNG-powered trucks comes from the U.S. Department of Energy through a federal stimulus grant. The federal funding represents about 45 percent of the project’s overall investment, which includes money committed by businesses such as Enviro Express.
“Because Bill Malone took this crucial first step in putting the new station in operation and replacing 18 of his trucks with these LNG-powered Kenworth T800s, there are other local companies interested in adding LNG- and CNG-powered trucks to their fleets,” says Tommy Russo, general manager of MTC Kenworth. “It was important for a company like his to get behind this project and create the infrastructure to make it possible.”
