Ken Pope, Ports America SoCal area maintenance manager, recently attended a special inspection of 61 hustlers at Capacity of Texas’ facility. Three of the alternative fuel hustlers were being prepared for a special showing. These hustlers, which were built to Ports America’s specs, are the first off-road CNG hustlers in any West Coast port, and one was selected for this trial at TTI's Long Beach, Calif., terminal.
TTI Senior Vice President and COO Larry Bennett commented on the value of this test.
“TTI is committed to continue our established practice of evaluating viable alternative methods to lower cargo handling equipment emissions and the participation in air quality improvement projects,” Bennett said. “The company is proud to have received the Port of Long Beach’s green port air-quality improvement award of excellence in 2005 and to have been recognized for support and participation in the annual port’s Green Port Fest 2008.”
Ports America has a long history of early adoption of alternative-fuel terminal equipment. In 2000, the company saw the AQMD-sponsored Carl Moyer Program as an opportunity to implement both business and environmental concerns and be proactive by going beyond the regulatory mandates of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and being ahead of the deadlines.
There is a major obstacle, however, in the testing of the CNG machines – there are no off-road fueling stations or infrastructure support. CNG (compressed natural) and LNG (liquid natural gas) need a fueling station with special lines, which can run more than a million dollars per station. Since the beginning of October 2008, the Capacity CNG testing machines have relied on fuel obtained from on-the-road stations. This limits the usable running time to one shift at the longest. To resolve the issue, Pope arranged access to a compressor for on-terminal usage.
Total Terminals International is a full-service, third-party container terminal operator. TTI handles approximately 11% of all USWC container traffic through its leased and managed terminals in Long Beach, Oakland and Seattle, which total more than 500 acres.
Ports America, headquartered in Iselin, NJ, is the largest independent port terminal operator in North America, providing terminal management and a full suite of stevedoring services as well as portside automotive processing services.
