Westport Innovations Inc. and BCG eFuels Inc., both of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Chart Industries Inc. of Mayfield Heights, Ohio, have launched Canada’s first customer field trial of a low-emissions heavy-duty truck using LNG.
The truck, equipped with Westport’s proprietary natural gas fuel system, is designed to operate with all of the power and performance of a standard diesel fuel engine. Westport provided the truck to fleet operator Bobell Group of Aldergrove, British Columbia, which will use it to haul wood chips from Aldergrove to Bellingham, Wash.
Chart has provided a newly developed Orca refueling station to provide LNG for the field trial. The Orca, a portable trailer, is the smallest of a range of LNG truck refueling stations manufactured by Chart. LNG for the truck is being supplied by eFuels, which is 32%-owned by Westport and 68%-owned by BC Gas Inc. The LNG for the Bobell facility is produced by BC Gas at its Tilbury liquefaction plant in Delta, B.C. and is delivered by truck to the Orca refueling station.
The Bobell truck is powered by an ISX 400 horsepower engine provided by Cummins, Inc. of Columbus, Ind. Through a technology development agreement with Cummins, Westport has been working since 1999 to adapt its fuel system to the ISX truck engine. An independent laboratory test in January verified that the engine with Westport’s natural gas fuel system produces precisely the same power and torque as the standard, diesel fuel ISX, said Westport.
