BOC partners new LNG plant for trucks

To-day BOC and their Partner group of heavy vehicle
operators celebrated a 5 year project coming to
fruition with a Grand Opening of the new
LIQUID NATURAL GAS plant at Westbury in Tasmania.
Mickeal Ferguson ,Federal minister for Resources
and Energy, Lara Giddings ,Premier and Treasurer of
Tasmania along with Professor Dr Wolfgang Reitzle,
Chief Exc Officer for the Linde Group from Germany,
choose complimentry words for the occassion!
Mr Ferguson highlighted that this plant would process
50 tonne a day of LNG from natural gas and displace
some 70,000 litres of diesel and approx 8,000 tonnes
of green house gas emissions.
Nateral gas is compressed and refrigerated to produce
a liquified product for transport and/or storeage. This
liquid is heated back to a combustable gas/energy.
(just like lpg for cars or bar-b-ques etc,.)
Distribution is via 6 roadside dispencers placed
across Tasmania with more to be added as required.
The project began with the need to introduce cost
cutting into the forest industry in an effort to maintain
export pricing for forest products. Remember a little
while ago when a barrel of oil was $160 usd and the
aussie battler was 68 cents!! What was diesel a litre ??
Every machine in the bush uses diesel , excavator,
processor,skidder the log truck and the contractors ute
were running on liquid gold !
The project needed trucks up to 600 hp but technolgy
in the US only had proven engines up to about 350 hp
to run on part gas and diesel or lowered compression
with spark ignition (big car motor).
There is some 40+ trucks including B doubles are on
the road currently.

I'll try to add some pics and add more later.

Keepontruckin.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to the benefits of LNG over CNG. The need to have cryogenic storage on vehicles, and the cost of super-cooling the gas to up to -170

Hey T-Des

From memory I think we were paying around the $1.85-1.90 mark for Diesel at BP (Bell bay and Gleadow st).

I did hear that Searoads new coastal boats are to be 'gas' powered too.

Hi onetrack, yes I think NG is reliable and pretty safe as
you pointed out . NG is less dense than air so it disappears
into the atmosphere where as LNG being
more dense hangs around the floor or in the pit!
The advantage of LNG vs CNG is all about carrying fuel
so to be able to travel longer distances - lng condenses
to 600 to 1 , where as cng is only a compressed volume
(up to 5000 psi usually around 3500 psi), I don't know
the ratio but can find out.
The lng tank is like a thermos flask and cng tank
restrains and contains pressure a bit like oxy bottles.
Route buses usually have a preset distance to travel
for the day or shift per" tank full". Longer distance
trucks, as in the West ,can have 3 large tanks of LNG
-one on each side and one across the back of the cab.
Yes processing NG to CNG and LNG does take a bit of
energy but it's all in the sale price which is still a very
attractive alternative. I view it as this if cars and taxis
can have gas why not heavy transport ?

Please keep the questions coming as it is new to me
also. Mr Ferguson said that by year 2015 ,OZ will be
2nd in the would at exporting volumes of NG in LNG
form-- that worries me as it is our resourse bring
given away !!! off my box now!!

keepontruckin.

Thought diesel price was high here Werk. Was $1.34.per litre at the local BP here today.. Dont think i want to buy your fuel just yet mate... lol

Hi werkhorse,
You are dead right with that price for diesel a short
time ago - hey , I see $1.45 poster on the road tonite!

Yes again you are spot on with these new ships coming
to Tas and that is very exciting news for Oz also.
You can see the supermarkets with their" clean green
image" banners rushing to dump anyone who doesn't
use alternative energy - IF they are true to form that
is !! :exclamation

Na mate it's $1.41 here now that other price was way back when they started this whole 'gas' idea.

One thing I've heard....good or bad....is that due to the 'gas' being able to dissapate the trucks can't really be left shut down for a while.......as in a week end or longer....as the fuel just dissappears and your left with an empty tank, therefore it works best in trucks that work at or near 24 hrs a day.......say like Searoad, Padgetts, Kellys, Walkdens etc. who are also the main transport players who will use it.
Note: the above statement was recieved from an unreliable source and therfore shall not be used in any way, shape or form as a quote or other definate source of information.

Here is the only photo I have of a LNG equiped truck, Just looks like an oversize barbeque gas bottle

Hi werkhorse,
You are dead right with that price for diesel a short
time ago - hey , I see $1.45 poster on the road tonite!

Yes again you are spot on with these new ships coming
to Tas and that is very exciting news for Oz also.
You can see the supermarkets with their" clean green
image" banners rushing to dump anyone who doesn't
use alternative energy - IF they are true to form that
is !! :exclamation

must have gone up again, I haven't fueled up for 2 days and the Bell Bay bowser was down today.

HaHa.....the supermarkets don't care how it gets to them. A certain brand of toilet tissue we handle is carted to the distribution centre by an old mechanical 400 Cummins......smokey joe at it's best. Down in Hobart the distribution fleet consists of and old K100 Kenworth, an N12 Volvo, an R model Mack and an S line international.....the youngest being built in the mid to late 1980's.

It's is quite funny to see out of the 4 companies that I know of that intend to use LNG, 2 are logging companies and with the logging industry in the state that it is now LNG may not get the use that they have planned for.

but then again maybe with the overseas boats not coming into Bell bay after April/may (which ever date it ACTUALLY is) we might see some more Coastal boats converted to LNG

Hey werkhorse,
There is some truth to your suggestion on lost
of gas after a prolonged period from LNG tanks.
Different tanks and lng systems seem to act
differently. The tanks with external heat transfer
components seem to hold their contents much better
than the tanks with internal components - its all
about the quantity of fuel in the tank and the temp
of the fuel . Our experience to date is that it is not a
problem - one truck in Stev Bye panel and paint shop
still had a full tank after three and half weeks of
standing. New trucks were parked up for a couple
of months with only delivery quantity of fuel on
board didn't have enough to drive to the bowser.
The real point to this must be, do we have trucks
to go to work or are they over priced pot plant stands!!!
Yes the logging industry in Tas may be heading to
the history books ...

keepontruckin

Thought diesel price was high here Werk. Was $1.34.per litre at the local BP here today.. Dont think i want to buy your fuel just yet mate... lol

Hum , Be glad that your not sit up here . $1.41 at my local BP ..Out of interest whats the petrol prices ? ours is $1.37 , and $1.47 for premium unleaded .Ian .