KPVI News 6 – Idaho Falls, Idaho

A strange new gas station has popped up at a popular fueling spot in Bonneville County. The station features a 16,000 gallon tower of liquefied natural gas that is stored at a temperature of -260 degrees. Its owner is a company named Blu. and you will see a steady stream of yellow busses from the INL frequenting the place in an effort to go green.

It’s no secret; the United States relies on others for our oil needs.

“We use about 21 million barrels a day of crude oil and we are only producing about 8 million barrels a day,” said Richard Peterson, Executive Vice President of Blu LNG.

This means according to these numbers, we are importing more than half of our daily needs but it doesn’t have to be that way. “We are energy rich,” said Peterson. “We have more natural
gas than Saudi Arabia has oil.”

Richard says there is at least a 200 hundred year supply of natural gas in the United States and more could be reached with better technology. It’s something that has caught the attention of the INL who has already made a significant reduction in their fuel consumption.

“5 years ago, we were going through about 1.2 million gallons of fuel a year for our operations and right now we are down to about half,” said Scott Wold, INL Mission Support Service Director.

In fact the conservation efforts were so successful that the INL had to brainstorm new ways to reduce their fuel consumption. Last spring they decided to convert three of their busses from biodiesel to a 50/50 blend of biodiesel and liquefied natural gas.

Data will be collected from the three busses and then they’ll try to get approval to convert the rest of their 80 bus fleet. “If we are successful with that, we can do another reduction of our petroleum use out at the site,” said Wold. “And so basically we’ll go from about 600,000 to what we are estimating will be less than 300,000 gallons.”

That would equal nearly a million gallons less than what they were running each year just five years ago. This would be good for the environment and save money at the national lab.

The INL began its bussing operations in 1951. Their fleet travels 2.75 million miles a year. Idaho is a leader when it comes to liquefied natural gas fueling stations. There are only two states with more LNG fueling stations than Idaho.

The original article can be found here.