Clean Fuel News

Efforts to make compressed natural gas a viable fueling option in Shreveport-Bossier City are taking another step forward.

Freedom Fuel, located at 501 West 70th Street in Shreveport, will officially open its heavy duty CNG station April 22. Meant to cater to heavy-and-medium-sized trucks, the fuel depot adds to the area’s growing list of public and private CNG retailers.

The station was built by Trey and Jonathan Smith, part owners of Ivan Smith’s Furniture. The company began converting its fleet of trucks to CNG in 2012, and Trey Smith said that investment, including the new fuel depot, will pay for itself in less than four years.

“Having our own fleet and being able to fuel up on site is important. Beside that, it promotes local oil and gas jobs with a domestic fuel,” Smith said. “We really believe in this fuel as a future fuel.”

Four vehicles can fuel at the same time with the station’s two heavy-duty nozzles and two light-to-medium-duty nozzle. The flow rate for the pumps is 12 gas gallon equivalents per minute at 3,600 psi.

Shreveport’s Eagle Distributing has made a deal to fuel 20 of its trucks at Freedom Fuel.

Bossier City owns two CNG stations — one on East Texas Street and the other on Barksdale Boulevard — which are open to the public and also service much of the city’s growing fleet of CNG vehicles.

Shreveport’s SporTran bus system has its own pumps to fuel its fleet, which is increasingly reliant on the alternative fuel. Several Time-It Lube locations in Shreveport also have CNG pumps for public use.

The Freedom Fuel station dedication will be held April 22 at 10:30 a.m. at 501 West 70th Street.