Biogas Fleet

In 2006, the City of Grand Junction initiated a project to utilize 120,000 cubic feet of methane gas produced daily at the Persigo Wastewater Treatment Facility as vehicle fuel. In 2011, the City began securing Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fleet vehicles and planning for the construction of a fueling station for them. In 2014, the City helped design a system to capture, collect and purify the digester biogas. The project included a 5.7-mile pipeline that delivers the fuel to the CNG fueling site. The fueling station includes slow-fill stations for fueling City and County vehicles, as well as a public fast-fill station operated by a private contractor. In 2021, The CNG station underwent an upgrade to increase capacity held on site. Given Grand Junction's steadily growing population, this upgrade will help the City take advantage of a growing supply of digester biogas.

Currently, the equivalent of 300 gallons of gasoline is produced on-site daily and offsets the same volume use of diesel fuel. This results in a carbon emission reduction in City operations of approximately 2.5 million pounds per year.

Since the first purchase of CNG vehicles in 2011, the City (also in partnership with the County) has continued to add to the CNG fleet each year as vehicles come up for replacement. There are currently 70 CNG vehicles between the City and the County, ranging from pick-up trucks, to street sweepers, to transit buses.

The City has received international attention for the biogas project, which is believed to be one of the first in the United States.