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.