Ferus Natural Gas Fuels and ENN Canada Corporation announced plans last week to team up to build liquefied natural gas plants in Vancouver and Edmonton to serve the transportation industry, hoping the new plants will provide a cheaper and cleaner-burning fuel to the trucking business throughout Canada. The fuel can also be used in the marine, rail, mining and oil and gas exploration industries.
“The benefits of fueling with natural gas are significant,” said ENN Canada CEO Henry Cai, whose company is a subsidiary of one of the biggest natural gas distributors in China. “Natural gas over diesel represents a 30-40 per cent cost savings to the end user and contributes up to a 25 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.”
Although natural gas is cheap and abundant in North America, it has been slow to catch on as a transportation fuel because of the lack of refueling infrastructure. The plants will initially produce 100,000 U.S. gallons per day (379,000 liters) of LNG, natural gas that has been chilled into a liquid state, making it easier to transport. Ferus and ENN will pick sites for the plants within six months, with startup expected in 2016.
“In order for our customers to make the switch to natural gas, they need certainty of an uninterrupted supply of LNG to fuel their equipment,” said Ferus CEO Dick Brown. “These two LNG liquefaction plants, along with the specialized distribution equipment and planned retail fueling stations, will ensure that supply, which in turn will promote and facilitate the widespread usage of LNG in Western Canada.”
ENN Canada also announced plans to open five more in British Columbia and Ontario by the end of this year, saying they have committed to use a “significant” amount of LNG from the Vancouver and Edmonton plants in its network. To read more, click HERE.
