The first of what proponents hope will be thousands of clean-fueled, heavy-duty cargo-toting trucks arrived at the combined Long Beach and Los Angeles Ports Tuesday, beginning a 12-month demonstration of compressed natural gas (CNG)-fueled transport of containers off-loaded from ships in the nation’s busiest port facility. Sempra Energy, regional air pollution regulators and the two ports are collaborating in the effort to replace diesel-powered transport.

Sempra’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) said the study will use four heavy-duty CNG trucks to move containers from the San Pedro Bay ports to nearby freight-consolidation yards. Each CNG truck engine (Cummins Westport ISL G) is certified to meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stringent 2010 on-road emission standards, SoCalGas said. Autocar is the manufacturer of the trucks.

Following the 12-month demonstration, SoCalGas hopes to switch the CNG drayage trucks to a mixture of CNG/hydrogen, a blend the utility said is widely regarded as a “gateway” to the wider use of hydrogen as a transportation fuel. The use of hydrogen with CNG has been shown to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from CNG vehicles by an added 30-50%, the utility said.

“The trucks are expected to reduce NOx emissions — a precursor to smog — by 80%, compared with the cleanest diesel truck,” a gas utility spokesperson said.

In addition to SoCalGas, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), and the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles have combined to try to clean up the region’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

About two-thirds of the 15 million container units coming into the ports each year are moved by truck within a 25-mile radius of the docks. The utility, ports and AQMD committed Oct. 1 to work with trucking companies and other stakeholders to launch a Clean Trucks Program at the adjacent ports.

SoCalGas said port officials have called this “the most ambitious anti-pollution plan” ever developed for a global seaport. The CNG trucks used in the demonstration cost $1.7 million overall, with the Sempra gas utility contributing $1.1 million, each port giving $112,000, and the AQMD adding $421,000.

“We envision these clean-fuel trucks playing an important role in the ongoing efforts to improve air quality around Southern California’s busy ports,” said Hal Snyder, SoCalGas vice president for customer programs.

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