Liquefied Natural Gas Yard Hostler Demonstration and Commercialization Project

August 2008

The goals of the project were to assess the performance and emissions of LNG yard hostlers during in-use operations at a container terminal, and investigate the business case for expanded use of LNG yard hostlers at ports and similar applications (e.g., railroad yards and distribution centers).  The major areas of the performance testing program included fuel economy, operator acceptance, service and maintenance, and emissions. The results indicate that LNG yard hostlers exhibit comparable performance to diesel yard hostlers in port applications with lower CO2 emissions and somewhat higher NOx emissions. In the absence of vehicle purchase incentives, life cycle cost estimates for LNG yard hostlers are currently about the same as diesel yard hostlers excluding LNG refueling infrastructure costs.