Argenta News - Bus Fleet Conversion Ahead of the Curve

Bus Fleet Conversion Ahead of the Curve

Written by Scott Miller

Monday, June 22 2009

Mayor Hays and his Stimulus Director have been pressing the Central Arkansas Transit (CAT) Board hard to purchase expensive compressed natural gas (CNG) buses. The City is also pursuing Federal stimulus money to convert the rest of the bus flleet and the City fleet. This will likely require financing millions of dollars with bonds over several years.

Turns out, CAT isn't the only bus agency to consider conversion of thier bus fleet. In St. Louis, the Bi-State Development Agency which runs the bus system compared the costs associated with running thier buses on diesel. CNG, liquified natural gas, biodiesel, ethanol and methanol. Turns out from a cost and and accessibility standpoint, CNG is near the bottom of the list. Biodeisel is at the top of the list very close to regular diesel.

Click on Read More for more of this post and the link to the study

So why is NLR considering CNG? We could be converting to biodeisel using an Arkansas based fuel..

Certainly CNG is cleaner than diesel, but CNG is still a fossil fuel and does very little to limit the City's carbon footprint. Click here for a link to the study by the St. Louis bus agency.The comparison table is on Page 5 of the study.

It is apparent the City is on the cutting edge with the CNG bus conversion proposal. Should the City be using tax dollars on cutting edge technoolgy that may not be the best proven technology in a few years?

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Comments (3)

Written by Big dog daddy, on 22-06-2009 08:49
Isnt a biodeisel conversion relatively inexpensive compared to a CNG conversion? Also how many technicians are there locally that are qualified to do repairs on CNG systems. I dont think the biodeisel systems are much different from regular deisel. They just require a few little tweaks. Anyone know about this stuff?

Dead On BDD
Written by scottmiller, on 22-06-2009 09:00
The study I linked to pretty much says everything you came up with BDD. It also backs it up. Read the whole 29 pages. It's a little technical at some points, but it will leave you wondering why we are pursuing CNG so doggedly

Biodiesel
Written by Eric Francis, on 22-06-2009 10:21
I've looked into running my '01 VW TDI on 100% biodiesel and what I learned is there really isn't a "biodiesel conversion," as such.

Diesel vehicles of a certain age will require a different type of rubber gasket/line because biodiesel can harm the older varieties, but I don't know if our buses are old enough to require the changeover (my VW did not).

Otherwise, diesel engines will run on biodiesel, no problem. It's still a diesel fuel oil, just made from plants rather than petroleum.