The City of Tempe, Ariz., has built a compressed natural gas (CNG) station on its Public Works facility for its 11 CNG refuse trucks. Fleet Manager Kevin Devery said the city expects annual savings of $5,000 per truck and a reduction of over 50 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

When the city built its bus maintenance facility 10 years ago, it incorporated a liquid natural gas (LNG) to CNG conversion station. LNG is trucked to the facility and converted to CNG for buses. But bus operation and maintenance is contracted out, so access to the fueling station was limited.

"Conveniently, this facility is adjacent to our Tempe Public Works fuel site. The simple idea was to tap into the high pressure CNG line and run a line to our Public Works fuel site," Devery said. "The end result is a metered high pressure CNG line to our Public Works fuel site with two fast fill pump dispensers."

In addition to the fleet's 11 refuse trucks that run on CNG, the city plans to purchase CNG trucks for the remaining 25 front loader, side loader, and roll-off refuse trucks when they are due for replacement.