U.S. trucking companies, trash haulers and transit agencies continue to invest in new vehicles fueled by compressed natural gas or liquefied natural gas, in part to meet corporate or agency carbon-footprint goals. But the economic rationale for switching trucks and buses from diesel to CNG or LNG is weaker than it was a few years ago, when diesel cost two-thirds more than natural gas fuels on a per-BTU basis — prices for diesel, CNG and LNG are now in the same ballpark. Also, developing regional or national networks of CNG/LNG fueling stations doesn’t come cheap. Today, we discuss the growing use of natural gas in trucks and buses — and threats to that trend.
LNG has been a frequent topic in the RBN blogosphere, but mostly in the context of large-scale natural gas liquefaction and export (All Down the Line); from time to time, we’ve also considered LNG’s role in supplementing pipeline gas deliveries of natural gas to New England during the winter months (Baby Come Back). CNG has been blogged about occasionally too — mostly relating to CNG exports to the Caribbean (Down to Kokomo) or CNG use at well sites (You’re As Cold As Ice).
The RBN NATGAS Haynesville is a weekly natural gas fundamentals analysis focused on supply, flow, and LNG-driven demand dynamics within the Haynesville basin.
CNG and LNG also can serve as transportation-fuel alternatives to diesel or motor gasoline. To make CNG, you compress natural gas to more than 3,000 pounds per square inch (psi) — typically 3,600 psi. Compression reduces gas’s volume to about 1% of what it would be at normal atmospheric pressure, but CNG still takes up 3.8 times more space than diesel on a per-BTU basis. To make LNG, you supercool natural gas to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit in a liquefaction plant (at normal atmospheric pressure); LNG takes up 1.7 times more space than diesel per BTU, but unlike CNG, you need to keep LNG supercooled (at fueling stations and on the LNG-fueled truck) until it’s converted back to a gas.
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About the song
“What a long, strange trip it’s been” is a key phrase in the chorus of “Truckin’,” one of the best-known and most-loved songs by The Grateful Dead, as well as the title of The Dead’s second compilation album, released in 1977. “Truckin’” is from the Grateful Dead's sixth album, 1970's American Beauty. It was written by band members Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and long-time Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. The song is an autobiographical tale of life on the road in a touring rock and roll band. The phrase "What a long strange trip it's been" has become part of the vernacular of Deadheads everywhere, and is often used in its abbreviated form, WALSTIB.
The Grateful Dead was formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, CA, and was a pioneer of the psychedelic sound coming out of the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1960s. The band's key members were: Garcia (lead guitar and vocals), Weir (rhythm guitar and vocals), Lesh (bass guitar and vocals), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (keyboards, harmonica and vocals) and Bill Krueutzman (drums). Over the years, Mickey Hart had been added at times as a second drummer. After Pigpen's death in March 1973, five other keyboardists came and went within the band.
After Jerry Garcia's death in 1995, the band officially disbanded, but various members of The Dead have kept touring in offshoot groups and solo ventures to this day. The Grateful Dead was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. In February 2007, the band received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Grateful Dead #57 on its list of “The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.”
