Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) and Onboard Dynamics, Inc. (ObDI) announced the field demonstration of new mobile compressor technology that provides on-site backup and supplemental compression at natural gas fueling stations.

The new compressor—the GoFlo CNG80—is now being demonstrated at the Antelope Valley School Transportation Agency in Lancaster, California, where 43 natural gas school busses refuel using the fueling station at AVSTA’s fleet yard. SoCalGas and ObDI are partnering to fund the demonstration project to validate the performance of the new mobile compressor, which they expect will further improve on-site refueling for natural gas fleet customers.

The Antelope Valley School Transportation Agency installation represents the second phase of field demonstration of the new mobile compressor. In the first phase, field testing was conducted and completed at Mountain View School District (MVSD) in South El Monte, California. There, the GoFlo compressor enabled MVSD to improve on-site refueling of eight compressed natural gas (CNG) school buses, reduce vehicle fuel costs and improve driver productivity. The demonstration at MVSD provided information that led to product improvements of the commercial unit that is now running at AVSTA.

The GoFlo compressor uses natural gas instead of electricity to operate, which increases its cost-effectiveness and allows it to provide backup in the event of an existing CNG compressor failure. It is also an economical way to expand CNG refueling capabilities without relying on a connection to an external electric power source to operate.

The mobile CNG compressor helps to fuel CNG fleets of all sizes (e.g., school buses, waste haulers, box trucks, etc.) and helps to reduce operational costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

The availability of a more affordable on-site CNG refueling system is expected to increase overall adoption of natural gas—and renewable natural gas—among fleet operators. Renewable natural gas is produced from the methane generated in landfills, wastewater treatment plants, food processing and dairies. Depending on its source, it is either low-carbon or carbon-negative.

Near zero emission natural gas trucks are helping achieve California’s greenhouse gas reduction goals and clean the air around California’s transportation corridors. Because of this, California provides incentive funding to help trucking fleets transition to renewable natural gas. Close to 70% of natural gas fleets in California are fueled with renewable natural gas.