Philly Airport Shuttle Goes Green with CNG

First Transit, the largest private-sector provider of mobility solutions in North America and provider of shuttle bus services at PHL, signed a 7-year contract with Clean Energy for an expected volume of 2.5 million GGEs to power its 38 natural gas transit buses. The shuttle fleet accommodates three main routes at PHL—employee, cargo, and long-term economy parking—that traverse a total 3.5 million trips per year.

“Airport transit vehicles operate in confined areas, primarily parking lots, so carbon emissions and noise pollution have a greater impact on the passenger experience,” said Raymond Blethen, Northeast director of operations, First Transit. “The airport was seeking to adopt alternative fuels and environmentally-friendly vehicles, so it converted 100 percent of its fleet to natural gas. The CNG-fueled shuttle buses run 90 percent quieter than diesel, lower CO2 emissions by 20 percent, and have no fumes.”

“With CNG our fuel costs are more stable than diesel, the maintenance is a lot cleaner, and it improves the reliability of vehicles in the winter,” said Blethen. “From a safety standpoint there is no spillage, so unlike diesel we never have to shut down.”

Clean Energy also executed a supply agreement with Valley Vista Services to power 100 waste vehicles with its Redeem brand renewable natural gas (RNG) for an anticipated total of 1.3 million GGEs of Redeem annually.

Redeem is the first commercially available RNG vehicle fuel. It is derived from capturing biogenic methane that is naturally generated by the decomposition of organic landfill and agricultural waste. Redeem enables at least 70 percent reduction in carbon emissions when displacing diesel or gasoline, according to California Air Resources Board (CARB) estimates.

Valley Vista Services will offer Redeem at two facilities, a private/public CNG station at its headquarters located in City of Industry, Calif. that will dispense an anticipated 1 million GGEs of Redeem annually. Valley Vista also built a state-of-the-art transfer station earlier this year in Pomona, Calif. that has a new public access fast fill CNG station and will dispense an anticipated 300,000 GGEs of Redeem annually. Both contracts are for three years.