Officials Say Fill ‘Er Up With (Natural) Gas : Energy: Program could reduce air pollution and save money on fuel costs. Eventually up to 300 vehicles may be converted.

Long Beach has opened its first filling station for vehicles that run on natural gas, a key step in the city’s $1.8-million program to reduce air pollution and the cost of fueling the city’s motor fleet.

The city, which embarked on a program to fuel its vehicles with natural gas about 18 months ago, has 50 cars, pickup trucks and Jeeps that run on the gas, which more commonly fuels kitchen ranges and ovens. Officials say the city will have 300 vehicles that run on natural gas and six filling stations throughout the city by the end of 1993. The city has about 1,500 vehicles, including 300 that run on diesel fuel.

Officials have not yet committed themselves to converting all city vehicles, and are focusing only on the 300-vehicle plan at this stage.

The program is expected to cut the city’s fuel costs significantly. Long Beach has its own gas department that taps into large supplies of cheap natural gas. That cuts fuel costs in half for the cars using natural gas, officials said.

Long Beach officials also hope to sell natural gas to private fleets. Supershuttle, the Los Angeles-based airport taxi service, is already using the Long Beach station to refuel some of its vans, said Paul Smock, coordinator of Long Beach’s natural gas vehicle program.

The city hopes to recover its $1.8-million investment in the program in about eight years, Smock said.

But there is another benefit as well. Vehicles that use natural gas can significantly reduce some types of smog-forming emissions.

Long Beach officials say a proposal by the South Coast Air Quality Management District prompted them to undertake the natural gas program. The AQMD is considering a plan to require cities and other owners of large fleets to convert some of their cars to cleaner burning fuels such as natural gas.

Long Beach officials decided to move forward even though the AQMD has yet to pass such a regulation.

“We found out we can save money, and we also clean up the air,” Smock said.

The blue-and-yellow pump in front of the city’s Gas Department, 2400 E. Spring St., was opened to the public last week. It resembles an average gasoline pump, but the end of the filler hose looks like the tip of a huge air hose. One of the gauges on the pump measures fuel in cubic feet rather than gallons.

City Park Ranger Jack Deaton pulled his 1991 Jeep Cherokee up to the pump one afternoon last week. With the hood up, the pump hose was placed atop what looked like an oversized tire valve. The sound of rushing gas could be heard during the refueling.

Deaton has been using the natural gas vehicle for about six months. He estimates that the vehicle loses about 5% of its acceleration when it’s running on natural gas. Of the 50 cars that run on natural gas, 48 can also burn gasoline with a flip of a switch.

“Unless I’m on a medical emergency or backup-an-officer run, I’m fine on (natural) gas,” Deaton said.

The rest of the 50 cars are spread among six city departments. The Police Department has one of the natural gas cars--a “talking car” that is used for school demonstrations.

It probably will be a couple of years before natural gas-powered cars are used as police cruisers in Long Beach. The developing technology should soon be able to produce cars that can match the performance of the gasoline-powered police cars, Smock said.

“Police people are very fussy about their cars,” Smock said. “They have to have a thousand horsepower to catch the bad guys.”

The city of Long Beach has been buying cars with gasoline engines and having them adapted to burn natural gas too. The conversion equipment includes a cylindrical tank, which is usually installed in the truck of a car or the back of a station wagon or Jeep; a couple of pressure regulators; a special carburetor, and a valve to switch from gasoline to natural gas.

It costs about $3,200 to $3,500 to convert the average car to natural gas, said Bruce Eikelberger of Alternate Fuel Technologies of Huntington Beach, the firm that converted some of the Long Beach vehicles.

The city will begin buying cars designed specifically to burn natural gas once they become available, Smock said.

Detroit auto makers recently announced that they will begin producing pickups and vans this spring that run on natural gas. The factory-equipped cars are expected to run more efficiently, increasing power and mileage while cutting emissions.

In June, the city expects to receive its first delivery of specialized pickups, which will cost about $3,000 to $4,000 more than standard models, Smock said.

Natural gas is seen as a promising alternative to gasoline because it has the potential to cut by more than 50% some smog-causing emissions. The fuel is also abundant in the United States.

Long Beach officials figure that the city will achieve significant savings with its natural gas program. Last year, the city spent $510,000 on gasoline, he said.

It costs the city 30 cents to buy and import 100 cubic feet of natural gas, roughly the equivalent of a gallon of gasoline, said Christopher Garner, superintendent of gas supply. The city also pays a seven-cent tax to the state. The city pays a wholesale price of 80 cents a gallon for unleaded gasoline, Smock said.

Natural gas also burns more cleanly than gasoline, so there is less engine maintenance, said Dennis Hill, manager of the city’s fleet.

Long Beach officials are hoping that more private fleets will use the natural gas filling station, which would generate more money for the city. Long Beach sells natural gas to private fleets for 70 cents per 100 cubic feet.

But city officials say they doubt whether the public will patronize the station because it is costly to convert a gasoline vehicle or to buy one from the factory.