Roland Pirlott, a driver for Paper Transport Inc. in Green Bay, fills his rig with compressed natural gas recently at a truck stop on I-94 in Racine County. The company has seven trucks that use natural gas for a route between Green Bay and Chicago.-Michael Sears

Natural gas is rapidly becoming more than just the fuel most Wisconsin residents use to heat their homes.

As the price of crude oil continues to rise, nuclear energy comes under intense scrutiny and debate rages over ethanol and its effect on the world’s food supply, natural gas is becoming a greater focus of U.S. energy needs.

Higher petroleum prices and drilling technology that make it cheaper to extract the gas from shale rock formations are driving the trend.

“In 2008, when gasoline went to $4 (a gallon) and diesel went to $5, we couldn’t answer the phone fast enough. And we can’t answer the phone fast enough today,” said Richard Kolodziej, president of NGV America, the national trade association for natural gas vehicles.

“From a public policy point of view, there is recognition now that we have the gas, and it’s ours and we should use it,” he said.

Others, too, are reporting more interest in natural gas as a vehicle fuel.

“In the last month, there has been an uptick in inquiries about vehicle conversions,” said Brian Manthey, a We Energies spokesman. “Businesses and governments are also calling to inquire about the steps they need to take to add natural gas pumps.”

It’s similar to an increase in interest the utility said it saw three years ago, the last time gas prices topped $3.50 a gallon.

The situation is not as simple as building natural gas filling stations and converting all our vehicles to run on the fuel, though.

Natural gas is most efficient when used in furnaces for home heating or as a feedstock for chemicals, said economist Jeff Rubin, former chief economist at CIBC World Markets.

As a transportation fuel, he said, “natural gas is not a good substitute for oil.”

“There may be some opportunities on the margins, with large trucks and buses, where we can substitute it. But the bulk of the gasoline in the U.S. is consumed by private motor vehicles,” Rubin said.

There are up to 150,000 natural gas vehicles on the road today, out of about 250 million vehicles overall.

And there are 180,000 gasoline stations in the United States. There are slightly more than 1,000 natural gas stations.

The cost to convert a car from gasoline to natural gas is about $10,000. And the cost of a natural-gas fueled passenger car is about $6,000 more – the Honda Civic GX is the only such vehicle available in the U.S. – than a gasoline-fueled car, Kolodziej said.

Focus on urban fleets

The industry’s goal, though, isn’t for natural gas to take the place of gasoline for private passenger vehicles.

“Our focus is on high fuel-use urban fleet vehicles – vehicles that go out in the day and either come back to a common location or go back and forth between two locations,” Kolodziej said. “You don’t need 180,000 stations for those fleets.”

Even if it is impossible to completely replace petroleum-based fuels with natural gas, it makes sense to move in that direction, said Ethan Bellamy, senior energy research analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co.

“The U.S. has an incredible bounty at its disposal, a 100-year supply of natural gas that could eliminate our dependence on oil imports if deployed in vehicles, particularly fleet vehicles,” he said in an email.

“You are seeing multiple bottom-up conversions (to natural gas) by vehicle fleet managers,” Bellamy added. “This trickle could turn into a flood, but a nudge from government could help, particularly on the infrastructure side.”

That nudge may be coming.

A bipartisan group in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday introduced a bill to create energy tax credits for investments in alternative uses of energy, including natural gas.

Businesses are turning to natural gas as a vehicle fuel in greater numbers.

As part of a $565 million program to put 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles on the road through 2018, AT&T has moved to deploy more than 2,000 natural gas vehicles across the country. The company saved more than 1 million gallons of petroleum fuel last year as a result, spokeswoman Jessica Erickson said. The telecommunications company has 54 hybrid and natural gas vehicles in its Wisconsin fleet.

The abundance and low price of shale gas is resulting in changes on the energy front of all sorts, whether for transportation or for generating electricity.

It was cited as a factor for Xcel Energy’s decision to halt construction of a biomass power plant in Ashland. The biomass plant was too expensive, the utility said.

Vehicles face limitations

Meanwhile, utility industry observers see natural gas as a key fuel for the years to come as power companies comply with Environmental Protection Agency rules that ratchet down the pollution generated by aging, inefficient coal-fired power plants.

“It’s trending toward natural gas as the fuel of choice,” said Mark Thimke, an energy and environment lawyer with Foley & Lardner.

The main ingredient in natural gas is methane, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Natural gas is colorless, odorless and tasteless. Mercaptan, a chemical that smells like rotten eggs, is added to give the fuel its distinct odor.

Natural gas use in vehicles faces some of the same limits as electric vehicles.

“Natural gas vehicles face significant range and infrastructure limitations, in addition to higher upfront capital costs, that drastically diminish the market for natural gas vehicles even in the presence of tax credits for capital, infrastructure and fuel,” according to congressional testimony in March from Richard Newell, administrator in charge of the Energy Information Administration.

For now, the fuel is one of the many alternatives mentioned as a contributor to ending the nation’s dependence on foreign oil imports.

“There’s no one silver bullet, so it takes a combination of all these alternative fuels going forward,” said Lorrie Lisek, executive director of Wisconsin Clean Cities, a fleet-focused outreach initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy. “What will be right for one fleet isn’t going to be the best answer for (another) fleet.”

Vehicle use increasing

Despite its limitations, the use of natural gas in transportation is increasing.

“Between 1999 and 2009, domestic consumption of natural gas in the transportation sector nearly tripled,” Robert Bryce, a senior fellow at the Center for Energy Policy and the Environment at the Manhattan Institute, wrote in a research paper this month. “That growth will likely continue over the coming decades, particularly if natural gas prices stay relatively low and crude oil prices rise.”

And there is a convenience factor. Gasoline is a liquid. It’s easy to fill up a vehicle with it. Natural gas is just that – a gas. To use it in vehicles, it must be compressed. To liquefy it, natural gas must be cooled to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit.

Technology is a wild card in the process.

“That could change relatively quickly if an inventor can develop a cheap, scalable process that can convert natural gas into quality liquid fuel,” Bryce wrote.

Our partners at Unison Solutions have helped install the first regional CNG station using landfill gas to fuel gas for $.20/gallon.  This will be a huge product in the coming years.

Dane County: New technology helps Dane County power trucks with trash
4/8/2011

Contact: Joshua Wescott, Office of the County Executive (608) 267-8823 or cell (608) 669-5606

Dane County First in State to Fill up County Vehicles with Landfill Gas

While prices at the pump continue to climb, Dane County is using new technology to fill-up some of its vehicles for around 20-cents a gallon.

County Executive Kathleen Falk announced today the county is the first place in the state that’s running vehicles on landfill gas.

The county, in partnership with several private companies that specialize in turning trash into bio-gas, have installed technology at the Dane County landfill that turns landfill gas into compressed natural gas (CNG). Over the next several weeks, a number of Dane County parks and public works trucks will be converting over to using this cleaner burning, less expensive bio-fuel.

At Thursday’s event, Falk demonstrated how the new filling station works.

“Filling up has never been this cheap in my lifetime,” Falk said as she noted gas hasn’t been as low as 20 cents a gallon since the 1930s. “Through innovation, we’re saving tax dollars, cleaning up our air and turning an environmental problem into a green energy opportunity,” Falk said.

Falk added the pursuit of these alternative fuels is especially important given continued volatility of prices at the pumps (gas is currently $3.75 at many area filling stations).

A few years ago, the county started converting methane gas given off by decomposing landfill trash into electricity that now earns taxpayers over $4.3-million a year. Turning a percentage of landfill methane into compressed natural gas for county cars and trucks won’t affect the amount of electricity generated.

While the methane gas given off by the landfill is essentially free, it does cost around the equivalent of 20-cents a gallon of gasoline to convert that methane into fuel that can be used by vehicles. This new compressed natural gas gets the same fuel efficiency (miles per gallon) as the regular unleaded gas that people buy at gas stations.

This new landfill gas station makes about 100 gallons of CNG each day and was developed through a partnership between Dane County, Cornerstone Environmental Group LLC, Unison Solutions Inc., Madison College, Alliant Energy, and ANGI Energy Systems, a Milton-based manufacturer and global supplier of natural gas compression equipment.

In addition to the new technology at the landfill, Falk today also announced the county will be installing a new CNG filling station at the Robertson Road offices of the Dane County Parks Department. This station was purchased through a more than $400,000 Clean Transportation federal stimulus grant the county secured through the Wisconsin Clean Transportation Program (WCTP). That same grant also helped the county purchase a number of trucks that run on CNG.

The WCTP is administered jointly by the Wisconsin Department of Administration – Office of Energy Independence and Wisconsin Clean Cities-Southeast Area. Wisconsin Clean Cities is part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Clean Cities initiative. Clean Cities supports local decisions to reduce petroleum consumption in the transportation sector through the use of alternative fuels, advanced technology vehicles, and fuel economy measures.

A number of major U.S. corporations including AT&T, FedEx, and UPS are converting their vehicle fleets to compressed natural gas to save on fuel costs.

In addition, increased use of CNG as a transportation fuel has substantial benefits for the environment. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, CNG reduces carbon monoxide by 90%, ground-level ozone emissions by 75%, and greenhouse gas emissions by 25%. It produces little or no fine particle pollution – - the pollutant that’s triggered several Clear Air Action Days and Air Quality Watches in Dane County in the past year.

Because CNG burns so cleanly, natural gas vehicles cost less to maintain. They show significantly less engine wear, spark plugs last longer, and oil changes are needed less frequently.

CHATSWORTH, Calif., Apr 7, 2011 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) — Capstone Turbine Corporation (www.capstoneturbine.com) (Nasdaq:CPST), the world’s leading clean technology manufacturer of microturbine energy systems, continues to grow its presence in the marine market with a recent order for two C30 liquid natural gas (LNG) microturbines that will be installed on a Type C Tanker for inland shipping and will be certified by Lloyds Register of Shipping.

The two C30 LNG Capstone microturbines, which will be installed in May, will operate in an N+1 setting for main power supply on board. Heat from the microturbine exhaust will be used in an LNG vaporizer to provide fuel to the microturbine as well as the main propulsion engines.

“The customer selected low-emission Capstone microturbines for this innovative vessel to take advantage of Capstone’s ultra-low emissions as well as our low maintenance requirements and high reliability,” said Jim Crouse, Capstone’s Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “In addition, the microturbines can easily integrate with current onboard equipment and increase onboard comfort because there’s no vibration and very low noise.”

Capstone microturbines can serve as a low-emission onboard energy source for propulsion or to power auxiliary applications. The clean and green microturbines can meet strict regulations without additional exhaust aftertreatment, which means reduced service requirements and reduced costs.

“Capstone’s influence will continue to grow in the marine market,” Crouse said. “Customers are hungry for innovative solutions that comply with current and future emission and noise regulations.”

About Capstone Turbine Corporation

Capstone Turbine Corporation (www.capstoneturbine.com) (Nasdaq:CPST) is the world’s leading producer of low-emission microturbine systems, and was the first to market commercially viable microturbine energy products. Capstone Turbine has shipped over 5,000 Capstone MicroTurbine(R) systems to customers worldwide. These award-winning systems have logged millions of documented runtime operating hours. Capstone Turbine is a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Combined Heat and Power Partnership, which is committed to improving the efficiency of the nation’s energy infrastructure and reducing emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. A UL-Certified ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 certified company, Capstone is headquartered in the Los Angeles area with sales and/or service centers in the New York Metro Area, Mexico City, Nottingham, Shanghai and Singapore.

The Capstone Turbine Corporation logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=6212

This press release contains “forward-looking statements,” as that term is used in the federal securities laws, about lower operational cost, additional reliability and durability, the environmental advantages of our products and success in the marine market. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as “expects,” “objective,” “intend,” “targeted,” “plan” and similar phrases. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties described in Capstone’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that may cause Capstone’s actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied in such statements. Capstone cautions readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. Capstone undertakes no obligation, and specifically disclaims any obligation, to release any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

“Capstone Turbine Corporation” and “Capstone MicroTurbine” are registered trademarks of Capstone Turbine Corporation. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire, www.globenewswire.com

Great to see Indiana is taking some steps by building the 2nd largest landfill gas to energy project in the country.  Found on Detroit News.

Melissa Burden / The Detroit News

Bloomington, Ind.-based Hoosier Energy REC Inc. plans to invest $25 million to $30 million in a renewable energy plant in Van Buren Township that will generate electricity for the grid, heat for the Grace Lake Corporate Center and create jobs.

In a 4-3 vote Tuesday, the Van Buren Township board approved a special land use permit for an acre of the Grace Lake Corporate Center near Ecorse Road and Interstate 275 for Hoosier’s landfill gas-to-energy project. Hoosier says the project will become the second-largest landfill gas co-generation facility in the nation.

Hoosier Energy via an underground pipeline will use processed landfill gas — odorless methane produced from decomposing garbage that typically is burned off and released into the atmosphere — from Waste Management’s nearby Woodland Meadows Landfill to generate 10.8 megawatts of electricity, said Chris Tryba, Hoosier Energy’s communications manager. That’s enough to power about 6,400 homes, he said.

The electric generation process “also creates heat, which we’re capturing from hot water, which we’ll feed over to the existing Visteon facility,” said Caleb Steiner, a renewable energy specialist at Hoosier Energy.

Visteon Corp. plans to lease land to Hoosier Energy for 20 years in exchange for the hot water, said Jim Fisher, a spokesman for auto supplier Visteon, which is headquartered at Grace Lake. Other tenants include General Electric Co. and Dana Holdings Corp.

Visteon and other tenants will use the hot water in boilers to generate heat, Fisher said. The move is expected to cut Visteon’s natural gas costs 60 percent, he said. Steiner said Visteon will save about $350,000 annually.

“There’s an environmental benefit and then there’s a financial benefit to Visteon with a project that is compatible with the surrounding area,” Fisher said.

Ameresco, a Massachusetts-based company that provides energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions, will design and build an about 6,500-square-foot generation plant on the west side of the Grace Lake campus, away from current buildings and near I-275, Fisher and Steiner said.

“Once it’s designed, built and up, we take over and run it to produce electricity,” Steiner said.

Construction on the project, which could create up to 320 temporary construction jobs, should begin by late April, with hopes the plant will be running by December, Steiner said. About 25 operational and maintenance jobs also will be created, said Chris Tryba, Hoosier Energy’s communications manager.

Supervisor Paul White, who voted in favor of the project, said the decision wasn’t easy. The township stands to gain about $380,000 in new tax revenue from the project, according to Hoosier.

“There was just a lot of concerns, and residents brought forth many legitimate issues which had to be resolved,” White said, ranging from noise, emissions and the aesthetics of the building.

Hoosier Energy, a power supplier for electric cooperatives in southern Indiana and southeastern Illinois, is involved in other landfill gas-to-energy projects, including one in Indiana.

“We look for those renewable energy projects that are more cost competitive, and we found from our experience with our existing landfill facilities that they are highly reliable and provide cost competitive power for consumers,” Tryba said.

There are more than 540 landfill gas-to-energy plants nationally, but just 27 are cogeneration facilities, including one project at a landfill in Genesee County, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Since 2008, the Michigan Public Service Commission has approved six power purchasing contracts involving landfill gas projects that provide renewable energy.

mburden@detnews.com

(313) 222-2319