A public access compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station on Thursday is set to open in Jacksonville, FL, the first in northeastern Florida and sited near two interstate highways.

A joint venture of ampCNG, Trillium CNG and Jacksonville’s Champion Brands Inc. developed the station in the city’s Southside Industrial Park, one of a series of stations around the nation that ampCNG and Trillium are developing through amp Trillium LLC (see Daily GPI, July 26, 2012).

The fueling location would be open on a 24/7 basis with a public access reader card system for fueling. The station is to provide two dual-hose dispensers, allowing two semi-tractor-trailers to fuel simultaneously with Trillium’s proprietary fast-fill system.

Champion Brands, a beer distributor for six northeast Florida counties, launched its first CNG trucks last October, and intentions are to completely switch its fleet to natural gas by July 2017.

A national effort has been ongoing for almost four year to build “America’s Natural Gas Highway,” a network of fueling stations for CNG and liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the long-haul trucking sector (see Daily GPI, April 4,. 2014; Aug. 25, 2011).

Champion Brands CEO Earl Benton said the new station is an important project, not only for Jacksonville and the region, but also to “the future of our economic viability and our goal of making Jacksonville the transportation and logistics hub of America. The word is out — CNG is available in northeast Florida.”

Trillium President Mary Boettcher said the CNG infrastructure would continue to make Jacksonville one of the most sought after locations for logistics operations.”

Others also have proposed natural gas vehicle fueling stations in the Jacksonville area (see Daily GPI, Dec. 17, 2014). Clean Energy Fuels Corp. has an $8.1 million contract to support the Jacksonville Transportation Authority to convert the diesel fleet and it has LNG stations in the city (see Daily GPI, Jan. 15, 2014).