Shortly before 7 a.m. Wednesday, a 10-ton silver trailer perched on the back of a flatbed truck rumbled through the city streets, and came to a stop at the corner of Simpson Street and Wesley Avenue.
Looking like a cross between a trailer home and a furnace, no one would expect the hulking contraption possibly could provide the solution to high gas prices, air pollution and the the nation’s dependency on foreign oil.
Evanston is betting it can.
After five years of planning, the state-of-the-art compressed natural gas facility reached its destination in a parking lot behind the City of Evanston Service Center, 2020 Asbury Ave.
A handful of onlookers watched as a crane lifted the eight-and-a-half-foot wide, 20-foot-long station off the truck and slid it onto its new home – a concrete slab surrounded by freshly painted yellow guard poles resting atop 40,000 gallons of natural gas.
The trailer encloses a gas compressor, a dryer and canisters used to store compressed natural gas. When it becomes fully operational in late May, the self-contained facility will be used to fuel energy-efficient vehicles that run on compressed natural gas rather than on petroleum, said Cathy Radek, Evanston’s superintendent of administrative services.
A fuel dispenser with two nozzles is attached to the gas facility, and the system essentially will work just like a traditional gas pump, Radek said.
The alternative fuel-dispensing facility, which was manufactured in Wisconsin, is owned by Evnorsko, a partnership between Evanston, Northwestern and Skokie.
The facility was funded by a $300,000 federal grant and is intended to benefit the fleets of the three communities. The grant provides them with a means to operate vehicles that run on cleaner, more efficient natural gas.
Each of the three partners will play a distinct role in the maintenance of the facility. Evanston will be responsible for the daily operations of the facility, NU will educate the public about it and Skokie will provide technical expertise.
Compressed natural gas is a cleaner and more efficient fuel source than petroleum and since natural gas is abundant in the United States, its use complies with the national initiative to reduce dependency on foreign oil.
“(Compressed natural gas) isn’t anything that’s new,” Radek said. “It’s just that the economic pressures of the marketplace have made it attractive to develop the technology.”
Skokie already has about seven cars in its fleet that are built to run on natural gas, and NU ordered eight of its own natural gas vehicles in January. At present, Evanston does not own any vehicles that run on natural gas.
“We waited to be real sure that we could fill (the vehicles) up,” Radek said.
Within the next decade, Radek estimated that about one-third of the city’s 300 vehicles, including police cars, garbage trucks, streetsweepers and recreational vans, will be replaced with vehicles that can run on compressed natural gas.
With the installation of this system, Evanston joins the list of thousands of cities across the country with similar facilities and nine other facilities located in the Chicago area.
The cost of maintaining the system and the gas supply will be the responsibility of Evnorsko.
Radek said the partnership hopes to minimize its costs by selling gas to local businesses and consumers, Radek said.
Project Manager Bob Johnsen of Clean Fuel Services said his company has been responsible for the installation of about 50 similar facilities across the country, but the Evanston facility is unique because it will be open for public use. He doesn’t expect problems for consumers.
“They’re pretty easy to use once you get to know them,” he said.
