Archive for February 2010
Day Six: We were back on the trail early Saturday morning and crossing into California by 0900 hours. Dropping down out of the Sacramento Mountains we eased our way into the Mojave. With an annual average rainfall of just 10 inches the Mojave supports roughly 2,000 different plant species most notable of which may be Yucca Brevifolia, or the Joshua tree. Read more…
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Day Five: General Francisco de Coronado, and the first Spanish explorers, arrived in the Albuquerque area sometime around 1540; we had arrived around 2100 hours the previous evening. Heading out of Albuquerque on Friday morning, our first order of business was to refuel at the Clean Energy CNG station located at the Albuquerque airport. We had gone 600 miles since our last fuel stop in Elk City, Oklahoma. The Clean Energy station is an unmanned operation and after swiping our credit card we fueled up our shuttle and the DyneTek/TGT trailer with 3600psi CNG. Read more…
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Day Four: The Anadarko Basin, covering much of Western Oklahoma and the upper Texas Panhandle, was formed roughly 300 million years ago with the uplift of the Wichita Mountains and is among the most prolific natural gas plays in the continental United States. Departing El Reno we proceeded West into the heart of the basin. Elk City, Oklahoma lies within several miles of the Texas border and we arrived at the CNG refueling station there at around 1000 hours. This was to be our last source of available CNG until reaching Albuquerque, New Mexico, a distance of 600 miles. We would have to rely on our pioneering spirit, and the DyneTek/TGT trailer, to make it into Albuquerque. Read more…
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Day Three: We arrived around 1000 hours at Tulsa Gas Technologies where we were greeted by the President, a friendly and enthusiastic, Tom Sewell. Tom gave the the full tour of the Tulsa Gas Technologies (TGT) manufacturing facilities. TGT fabricates and manufactures a line of top quality CNG dispensers for end users and other distributors and assemblers. Tom was quick to point out that TGT fabricates all of the dispenser components in house, as well as, producing their own circuit boards and process controls. Read more…
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Day Two of our journey across America started early in Cloverdale, Indiana. The roads were slightly slippery but an East rising sun made quick work of the night’s frozen dew. We proceeded west on I-70 and crossed into Illinois mid morning. By 1100 hours we pulled off in Vandalia, Illinois for a heart smart breakfast of sausage gravy and biscuits at the Chuck Wagon and were soon back on the road. Read more…
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Day One: Our planned departure being delayed by the installation of trailer wiring, we fueled up and departed the FirmGreen Green Energy Center at 1800 hours 22nd February, 2010. The FirmGreen Machine roared to life as all eight cylinders aspirated the cleanest commercially available fuel in the world: FGE’s biomethane or “gCNG” produced at the Franklin County Landfill in Grove City, Ohio. Just as our forefathers set forth westward across this great nation in search of manifest destiny, we too ventured towards the “New Frontier”; the “Green Energy Frontier”. Read more…
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Oil prices have rallied for two weeks, rising 12 percent as promising economic reports in the U.S. and troubles abroad pushed money into energy commodities. A refinery strike in France and general unease surrounding Iran’s nuclear posturings helped push up crude futures. Other petroleum futures were up for the fourth consecutive day. Read more…
