NG Advantage LLC has added APC Paper Co. Inc. to its list of customers switching to natural gas despite not being connected to gas pipelines, the Milton, VT-based company said.

NG Advantage will begin delivering compressed natural gas (CNG) to APC’s Claremont, NH, paper mill following APC’s decision to convert its process and climate heating systems from No. 6 fuel oil to gas. The mill, which manufactures 100% recycled paper from used corrugated cartons and newspapers, runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week all year.

“APC is committed to producing innovative products that are environmentally friendly. Fuel for our process has been the only area we could not improve,” said Frank Tarantino, president of APC Paper Group.

NG Advantage will deliver CNG to the plant using its “virtual pipeline” of 40-foot carbon-fiber composite trailers. The switch to CNG will save APC about 30% on its fuel bills and greatly reduce emissions, NG Advantage said.

“The compressed natural gas that we provide puts companies on a level playing field economically with competitors located on pipelines that have enjoyed the use of natural gas for years, and gives them the ability to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said NG Advantage CEO Tom Evslin.

APC is NG Advantage’s first customer in New Hampshire and joins a growing list of customers in Vermont and Massachusetts. Last year, NG Advantage announced the first industrial customers for its business of compressing pipeline-quality natural gas for shipment by truck to areas off the nation’s gas pipeline grid, saying it would truck CNG from a site in Milton, VT, to Pike Industries and Putney Paper (see Daily GPI,Aug. 28, 2012).

In August, privately held NG Advantage and Clean Energy Fuels Corp. agreed to partner in a 10-year deal to construct a facility for producing CNG in Pembroke, NH (see Daily GPI,Aug. 7). The facility, which is intended to provide a minimum of 10 million gasoline-gallons-equivalent of CNG annually, is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2014, NG Advantage said.

The announcement came within days of the formation by adsorbed natural gas technology developer Energtek Inc. of a subsidiary to focus efforts in the North American market (see Daily GPI,Nov. 21).