Pittsburgh Group Has Hope of Boats on Three Rivers Powered by Natural Gas

Pittsburgh Business Times
13 January 2012
By Anya Litvak, Reporter

If everything goes the way Jan Lauer thinks it could, the future of the Pittsburgh port will run on three letters: LNG.

Commercial boats that pull barges up and down the three rivers will be powered by liquefied natural gas. LNG refueling stations will pepper the docks and plants that convert the region’s plentiful shale gas to liquid fuel will appear throughout southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Lauer, president of Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities, a nonprofit consortium of area companies which advocates for alternative energy in transportation, said the organization’s biggest initiative this year is its Clean Fuels Clean Rivers project, a joint effort with the Port of Pittsburgh Commission. It will determine if the LNG vision can become a reality in this area.

Lauer said the organization has submitted an application to the Allegheny County Health Department for a $75,000 initial study that would inventory all boats in the region and track their traffic patterns and fuel use.

“Then we can step into the conversation with engine manufacturers and we can do a good job for the industry identifying what’s out there and what’s in the pipeline,” she said.

The initial phase of the study will focus on boats that circulate on the three rivers in the greater Pittsburgh area. That accounts for about 150 boats, she estimated, and includes both local traffic and line-haul boats that come from the south.

The second phase would extend the effort down the Ohio River into other Appalachian states, which also tend to be rich in gas, Lauer noted.

If the health department funding doesn’t come through, Lauer said Clean Cities will look elsewhere, including industry.

James McCarville, executive director of the Port of Pittsburgh Commission, said he was excited by the prospect of natural gas-fueled fleets, because the current price of natural gas is low and the fuel is abundant — the Marcellus and Utica shales nearby providing some long-term supply security, he said.

“And it will be even cleaner burning” than the diesel fuel currently used in marine vessels, McCarville said. But, at this point, it’s still just an idea, he said.

“They continue to look at ways to repower existing vessels, but nobody has figured out that magic combination yet,” McCarville said.

That’s part of what Tom Risley will be trying to negotiate.

“The biggest question for all these operators is, does it make economic sense?” said Risley, director of energy programs at Life Cycle Engineering, which will perform the study once it’s funded.

While it’s the big, coastal vessels that tend to grab the attention of regulators and technology innovators, the inland waterway systems might be a more practical place to pilot new fuels, Risley said, because many smaller boats tend to come back to the same docks where they can refuel.

For long distance journeys, it might be possible to outfit ships with multiple fuel capabilities, he said.

As with efforts to convert land vehicles to run on natural gas, the marine vessel proposal also faces a chicken and egg problem: What comes first, the vessels with LNG engines or the LNG refueling stations?

CONSOL Energy Inc., which has the most barges operating in the region and is a producer of natural gas, has been looking into the LNG possibility, according to spokeswoman Lynn Seay.

“While there isn’t a pure LNG option at the moment, product development continues,” she said. “Marine engines can be retrofitted with kits that allow the engine to burn LNG and diesel fuel, however, these have been deployed on a limited basis with some success and are not designed for CONSOL’s specific application.”

“Ultimately, this thing will have legs,” said Peter Stephaich, chairman and CEO of Campbell Transportation Co. Inc., the region’s largest boat operator with 40 tug boats. But, “I don’t think we necessarily want to be the first ones (to try this.) I’d rather be the third or the fifth.”

Repower boats now

While LNG conversions are a potential future goal, James McCarville is touting an opportunity for operators to repower existing boats with cleaner burning diesel engines.

“So far, we have worked with three companies to do a total of four vessels,” said McCarville, executive director of the Port of Pittsburgh Commission. The money for that, about $1 million in matching grants, came from an Environmental Protection Agency grant.

New funding, about $3 million, is expected to be coming from the Department of Transportation, so “we are actively undergoing a campaign to find companies,” he said.

Anya Litvak covers energy, transportation, gaming and accounting. Contact her at alitvak@bizjournals.com or (412) 208-3824.