Source: USGasVehicles.com
Kalmbach Feeds, Inc., has contracted with TruStar Energy to build a public compressed natural gas [CNG] fast-fill station near its Wyandot County manufacturing plants and distribution center. Kalmbach Feeds is a leading innovator in the animal feed industry, producing and distributing nutritional products throughout the eastern half of the United States.
The station is part of a new venture, Kalmbach Clean Fuels, LLC, and will support Kalmbach’s new CNG-powered feed distribution trucks. Strategically located near the intersection of US 30 and US 23, the new station will allow other CNG fleets and individual vehicle owners to take advantage of the benefits of the clean-burning, domestically produced fuel. Kalmbach Clean Fuels will be the first public CNG station in rural Ohio and will also host a maintenance garage for all CNG vehicles.
Kalmbach’s Director of Distribution, Tim Rausch, was charged with the task of developing a fueling strategy that best utilizes company resources, with the intent of transitioning away from foreign oil.
Company founders Milton and Ruth Kalmbach envisioned innovative ways to produce and distribute animal feeds when they began Kalmbach Feeds in 1963. Fifty years later, that innovative spirit led the company to look at CNG to power their vehicles – and to offer that infrastructure to the public. Paul Kalmbach believes that American natural gas has the potential to change the world’s energy paradigm and is leading the Kalmbach Companies to be an integral piece of this new solution.
The fast-fill station, slated for completion in early November, will allow two vehicles to fuel simultaneously, via fueling dispensers that function similar to standard diesel fuel pumps. The station will provide 24-hour, on-demand fueling by customers using standard fueling cards or major credit cards.
Rausch said that Kalmbach Feeds is planning to transition the entire fleet to either dedicated CNG or a combination of CNG / dual-fuel powered vehicles within 10 years.