Alliance AutoGas, Roush CleanTech initiate progress

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Separated only by a Work Truck Show aisle at the sprawling Indiana Convention Center in March, two strong advocates for propane autogas championed new products, projects and partnerships created to help grow the market in the United States.

Stuart Weidie and Todd Mouw are familiar names in propane autogas circles – Weidie the president of Alliance AutoGas, a Blossman Gas company, and Mouw the president of fuel system supplier Roush CleanTech. Both say the fuel can provide significant operational cost and environmental benefits to those who adopt it.

“I just love the story we have – the versatility of the fuel, whether it’s [transporting] kids, water, serving LAX airport or delivering mail for the U.S. Postal Service,” says Mouw, recounting recent Roush efforts to fuel fleet vehicles across industries. “Propane’s there – it can deliver the goods.”

Mouw stood in front of a 2018 Ford F-650 that showcased Roush’s new partnership with McAbee Trucking, a freight shipping and trucking company based in Blacksburg, South Carolina, that delivers packages for the U.S. Postal Service. At the show, McAbee announced plans to purchase eight propane-fueled trucks, with each burning about 6,000 gallons of propane a year, Mouw notes.

 

ANGI Develops CNG Fleet Fueling Solution

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ANGI Energy Systems has developed a CNG fleet fueling solution that is tailored for quick deployment with minimal site costs.

Infrastructure cost is often the most costly and time-consuming step to building a CNG fleet. The cost associated with constructing a CNG refueling station can vary significantly depending on size and application. Given the wide variety of vehicle types, applications and duty cycles, there is no single formula for designing a CNG vehicle refueling station and estimating the associated footprint.

ANGI’s NG75E fueling solution is offered in multiple configurations, to support small- to medium-sized fleets with an affordable first cost and total cost of ownership.

This fully packaged solution is built for:

  • Solution flexibility: This package can be purchased as a stand-alone product in a simplex, duplex and triplex solution. It can also be configured as an integrated FleetPro, or an integrated simplex solution that can greatly reduce construction costs
  • Mobilization: The FleetPro and integrated compressor packages are designed for simple installation and relocation – allowing flexibility for relocation if the fleet needs change
  • Performance: ANGI NG75E offers a range of inlet pressures from 4–13 PSIG and flow rates of 67–100 SCFM giving you up to 48 GGE per hour, per compressor, which is ideal for small- to medium-fleets

The ANGI NG75E is a fully packaged, quick-deployment CNG compressor that allows for simplified installation and operation. At the core of the NG75 packages are JA Becker CNG compressors, designed for lower inlet pressures. This package offers flexibility to small- and medium-sized refuse, vocational, municipal and other fleet operations.

Millions of Gallons of Stale Beer Is One Hangover From Lockdown

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In the concert halls, stadiums and bars across the U.S. that have fallen silent during the coronavirus pandemic, an unusual problem has emerged: what to do with the vast quantity of beer that’s gone past its sell-by date.

In March, even before the lockdowns became widespread, about 10 million gallons of beer held by retailers had already expired, according to estimates from the National Beer Wholesalers Association. As thousands of kegs are now being returned to distributors daily, Vanguard Renewables in Wellesley, Massachusetts, is among companies seeking to make use of it by turning the beverage into natural gas for electricity generation. Others will use it to make hand sanitizer, but a great deal of the beer will simply be decanted and dumped.

“This is a tsunami of kegs,” said John Hanselman, chief executive officer of Vanguard, which will take about 60,000 gallons a week to feed expired beer to micro-organisms in biodigestors that release methane, the primary component of natural gas.

Coping with a waste of beer is just one of the many unforeseen knock-on effects of pandemic-related lockdowns that have shut down swathes of the global economy.

Electric car charge points soar to 7.3 million chargers, 60% growth in public chargers

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We are getting some new and interesting data about how fast electric car charge points are growing in a new report.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) released its 2020 EV Outlook report, which includes analyses of several important data points related to electric vehicle adoption, like charging infrastructure.

Charging infrastructure has often been described as the ‘chicken or egg’ problem for electric cars: electric cars won’t be popular until charging is readily available and charging won’t be widely deployed until electric cars are popular.

But it’s not as big of an issue as people think because an electric vehicle can plug into a regular electric outlet and charge – albeit slowly.

Therefore, there already are hundreds of millions of EV charge points in the world that help kickstart EV adoption.

With this said, dedicated EV charge points are still extremely important to accelerate EV adoption by making the ownership experience more convenient.

IEA’s report claims that are now about 7.3 million chargers worldwide as of the end of 2019.

However, most of them are private charge points:

“The infrastructure for electric-vehicle charging continues to expand. In 2019, there were about 7.3 million chargers worldwide, of which about 6.5 million were private, light-duty vehicle slow chargers in homes, multi-dwelling buildings and workplaces. Convenience, cost-effectiveness and a variety of support policies (such as preferential rates, equipment purchase incentives, and rebates) are the main drivers for the prevalence of private charging.”

These charge points mainly enable faster overnight charging for electric cars. For added safety and convenience while driving, consider exploring reversing camera kits for sale in Ireland, allowing you to navigate parking and reversing maneuvers with ease and confidence.

But the report also had good news for public charging stations, which they believe grew 60% last year:

“Publicly accessible chargers accounted for 12% of global light-duty vehicle chargers in 2019, most of which are slow chargers. Globally, the number of publicly accessible chargers (slow and fast) increased by 60% in 2019 compared with the previous year, higher than the electric light-duty vehicle stock growth.”

The Standoff for E30

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The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy may be just a block or two apart on Independence Avenue in Washington, D.C., but they are miles apart on their long-term outlook for ethanol. Seemingly disparate objectives make E30s future less clear.

The good: The USDA set a goal of a market-driven E30 blend rate by 2050 in its Agriculture Innovation Agenda released in February.

The bad: Under U.S. EPA rules, only flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) can use blends of E20, E30 or E85. And the final rule updating the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards—the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule published at the end of March—failed to extend incentives for automakers to build FFVs.

Ford-VW Partnership Confirms Ranger-Based Amarok Truck, More Electric Vehicles

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After more than 20 months of gestation, the Ford-Volkswagen partnership is now official. Volkswagen will lend Ford its MEB electric vehicle and Caddy van architectures in exchange for a foot in the door with automated drive pioneer Argo AI, a one-ton commercial van platform, and the chassis for the Ranger, which it’ll convert into the next generation of Amarok pickup truck.

Arriving in 2022, the new Volkswagen Amarok will ride on a Ranger architecture that’s expected to undergo a redesign for 2022. This platform will reportedly accommodate a variety of powertrains, including pure gasoline, diesel, and even high-performance plug-in hybrid (PHEV) drive, recently rumored to produce a generous 362 horsepower and 502 pound-feet of torque. Whether these trucks’ powertrains will be supplied by Ford, Volkswagen, or a mixture of both is not yet certain, nor is which drivetrains will be available in the United States.

What is certain is that the Amarok’s odds of landing on American shores aren’t particularly high. A Volkswagen spokesperson told The Drive that there are “no plans” to sell the Amarok here, contrasting a 2018 statement from recently displaced VW brand CEO Herbert Diess that suggested the Amarok could be sold stateside. Ford and Volkswagen affirmed that their partnership will leave them free to compete with one another in the marketplace, so given the midsize pickup market’s small size relative to that of the full-size pickup, this town may just not be big enough for the two of them.

 

Nikola Signs Purchase Order with Nel

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Nikola Corp., a designer and manufacturer of hydrogen fueling station infrastructure, has signed a purchase order with Nel ASA for 85 MW alkaline electrolyzers supporting five of the world’s first 8 ton per day hydrogen fueling stations. Together, these electrolyzers may produce over 40,000 kgs of hydrogen each day.

The purchase order has a value in excess of $30 million, and the electrolyzers will primarily be delivered from the new electrolyzer mega-factory currently under development in Norway. This purchase order will support Nikola’s five initial stations with 8 ton per day hydrogen production capacity. The remaining equipment will be covered by a separate purchase order that is expected to be finalized within the coming months.

“We are building the largest hydrogen network in the world and I couldn’t be prouder to have Nel part of it,” says Trevor Milton, Nikola Corp.’s founder and executive chairman.

Toyota Establishes a New Hydrogen Fuel Cell Joint Venture with Chinese Auto Firms

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Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp is doubling down on its commitment to the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The automakers announced a new venture on Friday with Chinese automakers FAW Group, Dongfeng Motor, Beijing Automotive, GAC and hydrogen fuel cell developer Beijing SinoHytec.

The joint venture is named United Fuel Cell System R&D (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (FCRD). FCRD’s primary business will be the development of fuel cell systems for commercial vehicles in China.

Each company, including Toyota Motor Corporation and Beijing SinoHytec Co., Ltd. will invest in the joint venture. The joint venue will focus on the development of low-cost, competitive fuel cell systems and related components required for the widespread adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) for commercial applications.

The total investment from Toyota will be about 5.02 billion yen ($46 million). The company said in a statement that it will hold a 65% share of the new joint venture.

“FCRD is a company that holds tremendous significance for Toyota’s global fuel cell strategies. There is no other automobile market with such a sense of speed, and I am extremely confident that we will gain partners we can work with toward the shared target of expanding the use of FCEVs in China,” said Shigeki Terashi, Operating Officer of Toyota.

U.S. Gain Secures RNG Offtake Agreement with Holsum Dairies

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Appleton, Wisconsin, June 1, 2020– U.S. Gain proudly announces the completion of a renewable natural gas (RNG) offtake agreement with Holsum Dairies located in Hilbert, Wisconsin. RNG produced will be taken to U.S. Gain’s fleet customers in California, displacing nearly 900,000 gallons of gasoline.

Holsum Dairies consist of two separate farms (Elm Dairy and Irish Dairy) with digesters that breakdown animal waste to create methane that later is converted to RNG. Raw digester gas from Irish Dairy is transported via pipeline to a central conditioning plant located at Elm Dairy, where it is stripped of impurities to produce RNG. The RNG is then injected directly into the natural gas pipeline through an interconnect installed by Holsum Dairies. In addition to RNG, the anaerobic digestion process also creates organic nutrients and bedding material for animals that can be used by the farm or sold.

“RNG provides a beneficial diversification strategy for our business,” said Holsum Dairies owner Dr. Bob Nagel. “Not only can we profit from continued utilization of our digester, but also the valuable byproducts as part of the process. We encourage other farms to explore the impact RNG production can have on their operations.”

EPA approves RFS fuel pathway for biomass gasification project

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The U.S. EPA in May approved a fuel pathway under the Renewable Fuel Standard for a biomass gasification plant under development in McFarland, California, that will produce renewable natural gas (RNG) for sale into the transportation fuel market.

The project, known as the San Joaquin Renewables plant, is currently majority owned by Frontline BioEnergy, a company that has been active in the bioenergy space for approximately 15 years.

Frontline BioEnergy first started up a commercial-scale biomass gasification plant at Benson, Minnesota-based Chippewa Valley Ethanol Co. LLPP’s corn ethanol plant in 2008. That system converted up to 110 tons per day of wood residues into syngas that was burned in place of natural gas at the biorefinery.