Portable Natural Gas Delivery

Geographic areas not currently served by pipeline or distribution natural gas infrastructure are looking at ways to gain access to the fuel - and increasingly opting for portable delivery systems, often referred to as a "virtual pipeline."

In this process, compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG) can be delivered via truck to serve institutional or industrial sites. The gas is transported via a trailer that also can serve to offload the gas into the facility.

This application is proving of interest and value in areas of the region where natural gas pipeline infrastructure has yet to reach.

It also can be delivered into the natural gas distribution network itself, to provide supplemental supplies.

In this way, it can represent a timely and valuable supply option for areas that do have natural gas access but where existing system demand exceeds current infrastructure capability and deliverability. For natural gas utilities in constrained market areas, for example, CNG and LNG can help supplement supply needs, providing supply input and pressure support, and helping meet peak day demand. (One utility in the region notes that it refers to its portable CNG projects and other on-system distributed infrastructure work as "targeted infrastructure".)

Among the companies that are providing this service within the region today are:

iNATGAS opened this station in 2017 in Worcester, MA. It has a public fueling station for CNG vehicles (such as shown here), and also a series of bays for trailers to be filled with CNG for commercial customer use.
 
Clean Energy opened this station in NH in 2014. It provides compressed natural gas (CNG) to fuel trucks and other vehicles. It also provides CNG for special CNG tractor trailers operated by NG Advantage that serve industrial and commercial customers, such as a medical center and a paper mill.