Federal, state and county officials were on hand May 2 as Harrison Industries celebrated its 85th anniversary. Harrison unveiled its state-of-the art compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station with 26 pumps at the company’s Saticoy yard.
Keynote speaker Bill Camarillo, CEO of Agromin, one of Harrison’s strategic partners, lauded the Harrisons for their efforts toward cleaner air. “We’ve come a long way but we still have a lot to do,” Camarillo said.
Sean Wine from Clean Energy said that “approximately 50 percent of smog is produced by heavy vehicles.” He added that from October through April, Harrison trucks using CNG fuel have eliminated 115 metric tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent produced by 24 automobiles.
According to Mike Harrison, engineering manager for Harrison Industries, the CNG system includes two 250-horsepower compressor units that compress natural gas to over 3,500 pounds per square inch into CNG, as well as a computerized monitoring unit for its fueling stations.
Harrison Industries has long been working to reduce its impact on climate change by understanding its carbon footprint. In 2003 the company opened the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueling station in western Ventura County. Harrison has furthered its commitment to the environment by also adding 33 LNG-dedicated and 15 CNG-dedicated trucks to the fleet and three more on order. CNG has demonstrated itself as a highly efficient and reliable low-carbon fuel for material collection vehicles.
“Harrison continues to promote practices that reduce our greenhouse gas footprint, as well as enhance the environment as a whole,” Mike Harrison said. “This new CNG station will allow us to continue to convert a higher number of our diesel vehicles to clean CNG, reducing our GHG impacts and enhancing our communities’ air quality. As a step further, we will be using CNG sourced from low carbon programs, such as methane gas that has been captured from landfills, which has a smaller carbon impact that traditional pipeline CNG.”
Through Harrison’s recycling activities and managing 412,000 tons of solid waste, a total of 12,237 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent was emitted primarily through fuel combustion and electricity. Harrison still netted net zero emissions because of the recycling activities, the composting of organics and the use of clean fuel. Harrison avoided 206,361 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions which means that Harrison avoids 17 times the emissions they generate from their operations. That translates to about the same as what is emitted from 43,590 passenger cars over a year.
With the help of its new CNG fueling station, Harrison Industries is succeeding in meeting the requirements of state Assembly Bill 32 – the California Global Warming Solution Act of 2006 – which established a comprehensive program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all sources throughout the state to 1990 levels by the year 2020.
For more information, visit www.ejharrison.com.