UPS to use biomethane for Memphis and Jackson alternative fuel fleet

UPS will supply its fleet in Memphis, Tenn., and Jackson, Miss., with an estimated 15 million diesel gallon gas equivalents of renewable natural gas (RNG)—biomethane—as part of a multi-year agreement with Memphis Light, Gas and Water and Atmos Energy Marketing, LLC.

Atmos will secure landfill gas and provide it to MLGW for conversion to LNG, which will be delivered to the UPS facility by tractor-trailer. The deal is part of an initiative announced earlier this year by UPS to significantly expand its use of renewable natural gas in UPS’s alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet. The company has a goal of driving one billion miles with its alternative fuels fleet—known as the Rolling Laboratory—by the end of 2017.

UPS operates one of the most diversified fleets in private industry today, and renewable natural gas is a critical part of our strategy to expand our fuel sources and minimize the environmental impact associated with growing customer demand. We are using methane that otherwise would be released into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas emission and converting it to power our trucks while helping to promote the use of this renewable fuel in transportation.

—Mark Wallace, UPS senior vice president global engineering and sustainability

The RNG will fuel more than 140 heavy duty trucks in Memphis and Jackson, part of UPS’s natural gas fleet, which includes more than 3,800 medium and heavy duty vehicles worldwide. RNG can be derived from many abundant and renewable sources, including decomposing organic waste in landfills, wastewater treatment and agriculture. It is then distributed through the natural gas pipeline system, making it available for use as liquefied natural gas (LNG) or compressed natural gas (CNG).

In addition to natural gas, UPS also uses many other alternative fuels in the UPS fleet, including propane, ethanol, renewable diesel, and electricity. In 2014, 5.4% of total gas and diesel purchased was displaced by using these alternative fuels.

UPS operates one of the largest private alternative fuel and advanced technology fleets in the US. Its fleet includes more than 6,340 all-electric, hybrid electric, hydraulic hybrid, CNG, LNG, propane and light-weight fuel-saving composite body vehicles.

UPS was one of the initial 13 leading companies to take the Obama Administration’s American Business Act on Climate Pledge, committing to reduce greenhouse gas emission intensity 20% by 2020.