Fighting back against gas foes
In the last 18 months, Canadian municipalities from Nanaimo in the west to Montreal in the east have developed bylaws targeting the use of natural gas to heat new homes and buildings.
Some of these have moved forward, led by the Nanaimo ban, which went into effect on July 1 this year, and the Montreal edict, which kicked in this month for all buildings three storeys and 600 m2 or less.
Port Moody, a Vancouver suburb, will implement the highest level of BC’s Zero Carbon Step Code – building code amendments that would ban fossil fuels, including natural gas, for all heating, hot water and cooking applications in new housing. Ten other municipalities have adopted the initiative ahead of the province’s 2030 deadline.
And Ottawa, in its continued effort to show the world it can be the best at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – keeping in mind that Canada produces less than 2% of global CO2 – is feverishly trying to force electric systems, which fall within the jurisdiction of the provinces under the Canadian Constitution, to be net zero by 2035 by dramatically impeding the use of natural gas to generate power.
Grow the market
But against all these forces aligned to reduce or even eliminate natural gas consumption, one Canadian producer, an American fuel distributor and one of Canada’s largest trucking companies are pushing to displace diesel fuel with compressed natural gas (CNG) in the transport sector, growing a market that has been confined, in Canada at least, to municipal transit and refuse collection.
In April 2023, Tourmaline Oil, Canada’s largest natural gas producer, and California-based Clean Energy Fuels (CEF), which operates a North American network of more than 600 natural gas fueling stations, launched a C$70mn investment targeting the development of 20 CNG fueling stations across western Canada, starting with the inaugural station which had then just recently opened in Edmonton. Its first customer in that programme was Mullen Group, one of Canada’s largest logistics companies and operator of 19 natural gas-powered trucks.
This month, the partnership launched two more CNG stations, one in Calgary and the other in Grande Prairie, and over the next 18 months or so will add three in British Columbia and a fourth in Alberta – seven in total by the end of next year – on the way to the 20 stations by 2028.
“It’s a great opportunity to utilise Alberta and western Canadian natural gas and most importantly a great opportunity to reduce emissions,” Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose said at the Calgary station opening.
When compared to diesel vehicles, natural gas vehicles emit 20% less CO2, 90% less carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, and 99% less sulphur oxides and particulate matter. And vehicles fueled with CNG can see cost savings of up to 50% when compared to retail diesel prices, on an energy-equivalent basis.
If all the long-haul trucks in western Canada were converted to CNG, Rose told NGW later, it would represent a potential market of about 5bn ft3/day. “But if we get only 10% of that, which is entirely possible, it’s a big thing.”
Move to CNG began as a diesel displacement initiative
Tourmaline’s move to develop a market for CNG as a transportation fuel is a natural extension of its own internal efforts to displace diesel – and the emissions diesel produces – from its operations, Rose said.
“We helped pioneer the technology in all of our drilling rigs and frac fleets to get off diesel and on to natural gas,” he said. “We are heading towards 200 million litres of diesel displaced by natural gas.”
Clean Energy Fuels CEO Andrew Littlefair said the Calgary station – like those in Edmonton and Grande Prairie – will be capable of producing 1,200 to 1,400 diesel equivalent gallons of CNG each hour and fueling upwards of 300 trucks a day. And there is room to double that output, he said. “I hope we can get to the day when we will make the added investment.”
The 20 stations in western Canada – which will be capable of refueling as many as 3,000 trucks/day – will set the western node of CEF’s North American network, Littlefair said. That network was originally developed to distribute CNG but now focuses almost exclusively on renewable natural gas (RNG) produced by CEF at its own facilities or by others.
“Down in the US, we have been moving more and more of our CNG to RNG, but we are blending the RNG with the fossil natural gas and that’s really how you start to drive down the carbon,” he said. “It’s not going to be a one-size-fits-all technology – there will be places where electricity might make sense, where hydrogen might someday make sense. But we know that natural gas will work today. We know it’s going to take all of the above to be able to reduce our carbon footprint worldwide.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, in a video message to mark the opening of the Calgary station, said the new stations are welcome additions to “what could soon be a game-changer” for the transportation industry in western Canada.
“Transitioning to CNG is a win for heavy duty trucking and commercial transport vehicle operators,” she said. “It lowers emissions and uses low-cost natural gas, but only if it’s readily available to drivers on the road.”
Since the Edmonton site opened in 2023, Tourmaline and CEF have seen steady growth in the number of trucking firms taking advantage of the availability of CNG, and they now count nine as regular customers.
Wave of the future
But Mullen was the first, and it continues to be the biggest supporter of CNG as a transportation fuel.
“CNG is viable, it’s competitive and it’s good for the environment,” Mullen president Murray Mullen said at the Calgary opening. “Our CNG fleet continues to perform well, and now with the opening of these additional fueling stations, we can position the CNG units in additional markets.”
Critical to the growth of CNG as a transportation fuel is continuing the development of the technology to make efficient use of the fuel, and global engine developer Cummins is leading that development.
Its X15 engine – a 15-litre power plant that can run on any fuel, from diesel to hydrogen – has been under development for a few years, and most recently, the CNG-enabled version – the X15N – has been undergoing tests by some of the largest trucking fleets in North America, including Walmart, UPS, FedEx and others, Littlefair said.
“Cummins has made significant investments to bring to market the X15N engine – factory-built, 500 hp, 1,850 pounds of torque – that is really needed to move the big rigs and the heavy loads that we need for the long distances in western Canada,” he said. “That product is now coming to market.”
The Cummins X15N is the industry’s first 15-litre natural gas engine specifically designed to match the power, reliability and range – more than 1,000 km on a full tank – of its diesel counterpart. It will be commercially available in Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks beginning in late 2024, and early next year on Freightliner units.
Cummins says CO2 and NOX emissions from the X15N are both 90% below current US Environmental Protection Agency standards, and when powered by renewable RNG, the emissions reductions are even greater.
“We have one X15N truck now…it’s not quite in service yet but will be soon,” Murray Mullen told NGW, adding 15 more units are on order. “Our people love them, our customers love them, and it’s going to be the wave of the future – we’re glad to be a part of it.”