January 23, 2011 - By CHERYL R. CLARKE cclarke@sungazette.com
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TOWANDA - Compressed natural gas may be the fuel of the future, and vehicles converted to run on it will have the opportunity to "gas up" in Bradford County soon.

Chesapeake Energy, in conjunction with Williams Oil, Pennsylvania Dandy Mini-marts and Endless Mountains Transportation Authority, is planning on building one of the first public CNG filling stations in northeast Pennsylvania.

With oil prices continuing to rise, many, including automobile and truck manufacturers, are becoming increasingly concerned about the affordability and environmental impact of petroleum products.

Williams Oil operations manager Dwayne Phillips, of Towanda, said details about the station are few at this point.

"We learned just before Christmas that we had been approved for a grant, and I will be having a meeting for the first time about this Monday," he said, noting that more details will be forthcoming in the weeks and months ahead.

"We were part of a group that teamed up with Chesapeake Energy and EMTA as part of a grant application for Chesapeake to convert a number of pickups, and EMTA to convert or purchase five buses and we are to construct a fueling station in Bradford County. We have about 16 months to complete the project," he added.

A recently approved $750,000 DEP Alternative Fuels Incentive matching grant received by the EMTA will help pay for conversion of five of those vehicles, according to Karen Melasecca, EMTA general manager, of Athens.

"This is a matching grant so the total amount of the project is about $1.8 million," she said, adding that as EMTA adds more vehicles to its fleet, they, too, will eventually be converted to run on CNG.

"This brings the infrastructure so others can access this new fuel," she added.

Phillips is optimistic about the use of CNG to replace diesel fueled vehicles, but more for commercial vehicles.

"I think it is an opportunity initially in more of a commercial application where companies are operating a fleet of regional vehicles but through grants such as this the infrastructure will continue to be built to support it," he said.

Phillips also said he thinks the trend will be more toward building or converting vehicles that can use both CNG and diesel fuel, which he said has become much cleaner due to newer environmental regulations.

"So if it is operating in an area that doesn't offer CNG it can go back and forth," he added.

Currently, CNG sells for about $2 per gallon, and diesel fuel is closer to $3 per gallon.

Williams said he could not be sure how CNG emissions compare to diesel fuel but because of the new regulations, "diesel is so much cleaner than in the past" because "there has been an evolution" that has virtually eliminated emissions, he said.

"That trend started in 2007, when we met the first standard, and again in 2009, and they have just met a third level in 2011," he said.

Williams said in order to determine a price comparison between the two types of fuel there must be factored into the calculation the BTUs per gallon.

"Diesel is much higher, so you get much more energy out of diesel than CNG. For instance, he said, there are 140,000 BTUs in a gallon of oil, but only about 90,000 in a gallon of natural gas so you have to make those energy levels equal in order to figure a price comparison," he said.

The new CNG filling station primarily will serve Chesapeake Energy Corporation's CNG fleet and the Endless Mountain Transit Authority, which will convert 18 trucks to CNG, in addition to the general public.

The DEP announced earlier this month that 90 small businesses would receive $560,000 in grants for efficient lighting, insulation and other energy-saving investments.

Former state Gov. Ed Rendell topped these grants with an announced $7.9 million to 21 alternative fuel projects throughout the state.

The projects are estimated to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 14.5 million pounds while creating 221 jobs.

Buck