A unique semitrailer designed to get cheaper, cleaner energy to Fairbanks has shown it can haul more liquefied natural gas than anything else on the road.
In demonstrations last month, the rig hauled 12,300 gallons of super-cooled LNG between the Titan gas-liquefaction facility at Point Mackenzie and Fairbanks, a 30 percent increase from the current average load of 9,500 gallons, officials said.
The tests were "encouraging," said Dan Britton, chief executive of Fairbanks Natural Gas.
The review is part of the Interior Energy Project, an effort by the state to lower energy prices and improve air quality in Fairbanks, a city of 32,000 mostly dependent on oil and wood for heating. As part of the project, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, which has acquired the liquefaction plant at Point MacKenzie and Fairbanks Natural Gas, has been reviewing offers from private companies interested in hauling LNG to the region.
Getting LNG to Fairbanks could also include moving it by railcar. The Alaska Railroad Corp. last year became the nation's first railroad approved for hauling the fuel. But some trucking will be necessary until a 32-mile railroad spur to Point MacKenzie is built, a project being pursued by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and the railroad using a legislative grant.
The semitrailer, with a cryogenic tank that helps keep the gas a liquid by holding it at 265 degrees below zero, will also be tested on the gravel Dalton Highway in the coming days.
Britton said he is currently comparing the cost to the company of acquiring the trailer with potential operational savings.
FNG delivers natural gas to about 1,100 customers in the Fairbanks area.
The semitrailer's manufacturers — Heil Trailer in Tennessee and Western Cascade Truck, Tank and Equipment in Washington — have offered to sell the trailer to the state, said Pat Malara, president of Western Cascade.
Malara said the price is confidential, but is lower than the semitrailer's construction costs. The 75-foot-long semitrailer is built with five axles, helping it carry larger loads than the four-axle trailers used by Fairbanks Natural Gas, he said.
"The trailer met every expectation we promised," Malara said.
It also meets Department of Transportation requirements for such factors as weight distribution, he said.
"This is absolutely street legal," he said.
Karsten Rodvik, a spokesman with AIDEA, said the agency is in the "evaluation process."
"At this point it would be premature to discuss any potential acquisition of the trailer," he said.
Western Cascade is working on boosting the amount of LNG the semitrailer can carry by reducing the semitrailer's weight as much as possible, hopefully up to 700 pounds, Malara said.
Such a weight reduction would allow the semitrailer to carry another 200 gallons of LNG per trip. LNG weighs about 3 1/2 pounds a gallon — making it much lighter than an 8 1/2-pound gallon of milk, which is mostly water.
"They'd see a significant savings in transportation costs," with larger loads, he said of Fairbanks Natural Gas.
Western Cascade is also working on a plan to add a "pull trailer" — a second, smaller trailer hauled behind the semitrailer — that could boost a single load to 17,500 gallons.
Such combinations already carry diesel fuel along the Parks Highway every day, Malara said. Western Cascade is planning to modify that design and apply it to LNG transportation.
"It's something that is 100 percent doable," he said.