USA, California
Sound Energy Solutions (SES) and International Transportation Service, Inc. (ITS) have signed a Letter of Intent to jointly develop a one-year demonstration project to test the operations of three LNG-powered yard hostlers at the ITS container terminal in the Port of Long Beach.
Long Beach-based SES, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi
Corporation in Japan, is in the process of permitting an LNG receiving
terminal in the Port of Long Beach. As part of its project and
commitment to the region, SES has been actively promoting the use of
low-emission LNG yard hostlers in the Ports of Long Beach and Los
Angeles and in intermodal rail yards since 2005. This new
demonstration project with ITS is the fourth project that SES has
worked to develop. Other projects have already been implemented with
Yusen Terminals Inc. in the Port of Los Angeles, Long Beach Container
Terminal in the Port of Long Beach, and BNSF Railway in the City of
Commerce.
Currently, there are approximately 3,000 heavy-duty LNG-powered trucks,
buses, and vehicles operating throughout California and other parts of
the nation. LNG engines produce 93% lower nitrogen oxide (NOx) and
particulate matter (PM) emissions, 100 percent less sulfur dioxide
(SOx) emissions, and 20% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than their
traditional diesel counterparts. SES estimates that if all of the
estimated 1,500 yard hostlers now operating in the Ports of Long Beach
and Los Angeles were replaced with LNG-powered units, the annual
emission reduction within the local community would be nearly 1,900
tons of NOx and PM combined and an annual reduction of over 11,000 tons
of greenhouse gas emissions.
In November 2006, the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles jointly
adopted the San Pedro Bay Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP). The CAAP
proposes that NOx emissions in the harbor be reduced by more than 45
percent and PM emissions by more than 50 percent by 2012. To achieve
this important goal, the CAAP will require that cargo-handling
equipment and on-road port drayage trucks be replaced by
lower-emission technologies, including LNG yard hostlers and over
5,000 LNG Class 8 trucks.
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