Dive Brief:
- A new report by BCC Research examines 10 alternative fuels for commercial vehicles and shows that compressed natural gas (CNG) has remained competitive, even as diesel fuel costs are lower. This is especially true for fleets that compress fuel with their own equipment, using their own natural gas utility-pipe connection, and or if they run their fleets on their own biogas.
- CNG did not hold up well against very low oil and diesel prices when this alternative fuel was bought at truck stops, though if companies purchase half of their CNG at truck stop prices they will achieve a 3-year payback.
- The new data showed biogas is "probably always a favorable proposition—no matter how cheap diesel prices are," according to Jon T. Gabrielsen, author of the report, as reported in Trucking Info.
Dive Insight:
This report, titled "Alternatively Powered Commercial Vehicles: Global Markets," is good news for the solid waste management companies who have bought into CNG, and especially for those that have dug deeper into their pockets and invested in the whole infrastructure.
"The unsung opportunity all long has been CNG," said Gabrielsen to Trucking Info.
He said the added cost per diesel gallon equivalent (DGE) of CNG is $0.36-0.48/DGE for a 3-year payback.
"So conservatively," he stated, "any time that one can fuel a commercial vehicle with CNG for at least 50 cents per DGE less than with diesel fuel, then one will have at least a 3-year or shorter payback by having equipped [trucks] for CNG instead of diesel."
A new alternative fuel tax credit is also intended to add more financial incentive.
