Politics & Government

City Gets Natural Gas Vans [VIDEO]

Two Ford Transit Connect vans will save money, lessen carbon footprint.

Officials from the city of Concord showed off two converted Ford Transit Connect cargo vans that run on natural gas last week that will be part of the General Services Department fleet.

The city received a $27,000 grant from the state Department of Environmental Services to complete the conversion.

The vans originally came with gasoline engines and tanks but the city had them converted at no cost through a grant from the DES. That grant eliminated the cost of the retrofit.

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to Robert LeBreux, the fleet manager for the city of Concord, the vans are retrofitted with three tanks of natural gas that provide the equivalent amount of miles that 16 gallons of gas provides. The high-pressured natural gas tanks are filled to 3,600 psi and then the vehicle runs off the pressure of the gas. The city gets the tanks refilled at the state Department of Transportation facility on Stickney Avenue about every week or so, depending on the usage.

The natural gas vans will get about the same mileage as the gas vans. So they will travel about 250 to 300 miles on a fill-up of natural gas, and do most of their miles in the city, according to LeBreux. The state bills the city on gasoline gallon equivalents. The difference will be the cost to run the vans, since natural gas cost much less per gallon equivalent. Right now, it’s about $1.50 per gallon equivalent, according to officials from the DES who were at the event.

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

LeBreux guesstimated that the savings would be about $2,000 per year, per vehicle.

The vans will also release no carbon emissions while running, he said, which is an environmental advantage.

“It burns much cleaner, much cleaner,” he said.

The fresh water conservation and wastewater treatment divisions will use the vans as part of their transportation duties around the city. The fresh water van will include water leak detection equipment and will be used to promote conservation while the sewage van will pick up samples to bring back to the lab for analysis, LeBreux said.

The vans cost about $20,000 each before the conversion.


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