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Photo: N/A, License: N/A, Created: 2012:01:20 11:25:52

WARREN RUDA/Staff Photographer Jeff Gustinucci, assistant director of public works and recycling coordinator for Plains Township, connects a natural gas line to the township's recycling truck at the township garage on Jan. 20, 2012. The $180,000 truck, fueled completely by Marcellus Shale natural gas, was purchased with the help of a state grant.

Natural gas runs cleaner and cheaper in automobiles, so the fuel will become the vehicle fuel of choice very soon, a natural gas industry official believes.

Joe Bauman, a UGI representative who assists municipalities with natural gas projects for vehicles, told the Mountain Council of Governments last week the technology and the need for the use of natural gas in autos is there.

"The savings is phenomenal," Bauman said. "It costs about $1.50 a gallon, and the price will stay there for a long time. The more miles you go, the more money you are going to save.

"We're not going to be driving what we are driving today five years from now. If you are, it's because you can't afford the next step. In my mind, you can't afford not to."

Bauman noted that natural gas is attractive for municipal vehicles, especially police cars and buses that travel a lot of miles.

"A police vehicle may put on 150,000 miles in a very short time," Bauman said. "You want to look at what you re going to save, because the vehicle is going to cost more, because of the tank."

Maintenance costs are a lot less, he said, because natural gas burns cleaner than gasoline.

"It's the same car or truck," he said. "Everything is the same, except the tank.

"A vehicle that runs on natural gas typically lasts longer. There's a lot less maintenance on them, because the engine remains clean. It doesn't create any carbon when it burns."

Bruce Donovan, who manages transportation for DeAngelo Brothers Inc., explained why natural gas is better for a motor vehicle than gasoline.

"Natural gas has a lower BTU (British thermal unit, a way to measure energy) but a higher octane, which makes it perfect from a maintenance standpoint because you don't get the deposit buildup in the engine you get with a pure petroleum-based fuel," Donovan said.

"It gives you a longer engine life, and a longer life on the exhaust system. The BTUs going through the exhaust system creates the metal fatigue in it which is what causes it to crack. You're running a higher octane, but the engine is actually running cooler."

Bauman explained that natural gas has an octane level of 120, as compared to super unleaded gasoline, which is 92, so the vehicle is going to run very well.

"Oil changes are done every 35,000 miles, and tuneups every 50,000 miles," Bauman said. "You get 1 million miles out of a natural gas engine, as opposed to 300,000 in gas engines in buses."

Bauman said Plains Township and Dupont borough have put together projects to buy natural gas-burning garbage trucks which include the vehicle and a gas station.

"They actually have a payback on the garbage trucks," Bauman said. "When you look at their $9,000-a-year savings in fuel and the savings from maintenance, they are going to have a payback in five years or less if we froze the price of diesel."

The size of the filling station depends on the number of vehicles. A station that fills a tank overnight, called a slow-fill station, cost Dupont $10,000 to fill one garbage truck. Plains Township's $28,000 station can fill three trucks overnight.

Bauman said the mayor of Williamsport installed a slow-fill station at his home, for his car, for $6,500.

A public station, which is a fast-fill station - like a gasoline station - is coming soon to Wilkes-Barre. But it's going to cost $1 million

Grants are starting to become available through the state Department of Environmental Protection, as well as federal alternate fuel vehicle grants, Bauman said. The federal grant can cover the cost of the filling station, while the state grants cover the extra cost of the special tank.

Bauman said the technology was first introduced in the early 1990s, but died out when federal grants disappeared.

"The reason natural gas vehicles are catching on again - and I say again because they used to be very popular back in the early '90s - is simply because of the spreads on oil and the cost to run vehicles on gas or diesel," Bauman said.

"In the last 40 natural gas jobs I've done, they haven't had any problems because this is old technology, even though it's a little scary, because it's the first time you're hearing about it."

Before a municipality embarks on such a project, a business plan has to be put together, which Bauman said he could help with.

"There is no magic to this," Bauman said "You have to come up with a plan, identify the vehicles so you can identify the cost, and identify what station you will need. How many miles do you drive the vehicles? How much do you spend on fuel? How many vehicles do you replace in a year?"