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CNG Fueling Station to Open by Next Week in Girard
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- A compressed-natural gas, or CNG, fueling station at the Salt Springs Road/Interstate 80 interchange in Girard is scheduled to open by next week, a representative of IGS Energy told attendees at the Youngstown State University Sustainable Energy Conference Tuesday.
"Typically, we like to build a station where we have fleets in the area," said Dan Hackett, account manager for IGS CNG Services. "This location is such an incredibly traveled interstate, that we built this station without a current anchor fleet."
The company, based in Dublin, Ohio, announced last year at the conference that it would build the new station at the Mr. Fuel truck stop at 2840 Salt Springs Road.
"We're getting calls from all areas of industry, from the high-end fleet companies that have hundreds and hundreds of trucks, down to the small moms and pops that have six to 10 trucks," Hackett said.
Hackett projects a 30% increase in CNG use among larger semi trucks over the next 10 to 15 years. "We're also seeing a lot from the consumer vehicle side, the OEMs, vehicles coming right of the line," he says, citing the Chevrolet Impala and the Ford F-150, F-350 and F-450 that have CNG options.
Hackett participated in a panel discussion during the second and final day of YSU's sixth Sustainable Energy Forum, which focused on opportunities in natural gas and renewable energy.
The Girard station is one of a handful IGS has constructed over the years to promote the use of CNG as a cleaner, less expensive means of fuel, Hackett notes.
CNG fuel, he emphasized, is much cleaner than diesel gas, noting that it reduces particulate matter emissions by 90% and nitrogen oxide emissions by 50%.
On average, a driver can save between 30% and 50% in cost after converting an engine to CNG capability. Much of the cost -- 70% -- of a gallon of CNG fuel, he noted, is tied up in taxes, compression and transportation. "Just 30% is in the gas," meaning the price at the pump won't be impacted as much through price swings of CNG.
"As infrastructure grows, CNG will grow," Hackett says.
IGS has three CNG stations in West Virginia, and more in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Michigan Hackett reports.
"We're not the monster of the station-build industry yet," he said. "We're talking to customers nationwide, and if it makes sense for us to build nationally with a company, we'll build nationally with a company."
CNG stations in this region make sense since there is so much natural gas being drilled out of the Utica and Marcellus shale plays in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, says Jeffery Dick, chairman of the geology department at YSU.
"There are some Marcellus wells that are producing 20 million to 30 million cubic feet per day," he told conference attendees. "Forty percent of energy use in New York City is from Marcellus gas."
Oil and gas exploration in the Marcellus and Utica has exploded over the last three years years, Dick noted. In 2011, for example, 6,833 unconventional wells were drilled in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. By November 2013, that number had climbed to 10,019 wells drilled.
Dick said the Utica and Marcellus might hold between 64 trillion and 205 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, not all of which is recoverable. Also, the play could potentially yield between 1.6 billion and 6.2 billion barrels of natural-gas liquids, and 590 million and 1.39 billion barrels of oil, though he concedes the oil figure might be overly optimistic.
Drilling programs are exploring ways to use alternative fuels to tap the oil and gas shale plays, reported Matt Hammer of P.G. Hull and Associates. Chesapeake Energy, the most prolific driller in the Utica shale, has used alternative energy such as the electric grid and realized $1.33 million in savings on 63 wells.
"Consol Energy is using electric rigs," he told the audience. "The air quality is good, and it eliminates emissions and noise."
And, there's potential for regional development as a result of downstream uses for NGLs moving out of the Utica and Marcellus, said Paul Boulier, vice president of business attraction at Team Northeast Ohio, known more commonly as Team NEO.
"We're currently at a run rate of about $19 billion of investment going into eastern Ohio," he reports. "A lot of opportunity across the board, but what we're seeing here is infrastructure build, so pipelines and natural-gas liquids separators."
Boulier says there's opportunity in the petrochemical industry should plans move forward with several "cracker" processing plants under consideration in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
"It's grown and thrived without a cracker here," Boulier says, but noted that Ohio must place itself in position should these massive processing plants get the green light. "We have to be patient, but be prepared and in a position to respond, and have them see the manufacturing strengths we have in this region," he says.
The conference also presented new ideas on how to improve alternative energy programs such as wind turbine technology.
Mark Cironi, president of Green Energy Technologies, Cleveland, told the audience that his company has developed an innovative "wind sphere" that is more efficient, cost-competitive and quieter than some of the larger turbines.
The blade design is based on an airfoil created at NASA, Cironi says. In this case the blades are smaller, but are encircled by a large diameter metal sphere. The blades and sphere are perched atop a pole standing about 100 feet high.
Green Technology is planning to develop a $300,000 wind sphere for YSU, Cironi says, that would be capable of generating 65,000 kilowatts annually.
"Its very quiet since there's no gear box," Cironi says. Noise is reduced since the blades swing above the pole, preventing air friction, he added.
Martin Abraham, dean of YSU's College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, said the new wind sphere would be placed behind Melnick Hall on Wick Avenue.
The project must be approved by the U.S. Department of Energy since the area is designated a historical district. "We've agreed on a mitigation plan," Abraham says, "so we're just waiting on DOE."
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