CNG vs. LNG: how to choose your natural gas fuel type

Should you fuel with compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG)? It depends on fuel availability, existing fuelling station locations, the type and size of your vehicles and your required driving range.

Comparing CNG and LNG

	CNG	LNG
What it is:	natural gas that’s been piped to a compression facility	natural gas that’s been cooled to -162 °C to become a liquid
Best for:	medium-duty vehicles travelling a moderate distance between refuelling	the best choice when extended driving range is required, because an LNG tank holds 2.5 times more fuel than a similar sized CNG tank
Vehicle types:	waste haulers and dump trucks courier and delivery trucks transit buses school buses passenger cars (e.g. Honda Civic GX) pickup trucks (e.g. Ford F150) cargo vans and minivans (e.g. Chevrolet Express Van)	class 8 long-haul tractors marine vessels such as coastal ferries heavy-duty mine haul trucks locomotives
How it’s delivered:	delivered through our natural gas system to various dispensing stations across BC	delivered from our LNG storage facilities by tank truck to: permanent LNG dispensing station mobile fuelling station on a customer’s property¹ commercial fuelling station along a regional corridor

LNG fuelling process

CNG fuelling process

LNG facilities

Of the five LNG storage facilities in Canada, FortisBC owns and operates two facilities on the Canadian West Coast—the Mt. Hayes storage facility on Vancouver Island and the Tilbury LNG plant in Delta. Learn more about our LNG facilities.

Building a fuelling station

Compressed natural gas (CNG) facilities are less expensive to build than permanent liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities. CNG facilities typically get their supply directly from the utility’s existing infrastructure, while LNG has to be trucked from an LNG storage facility to a permanent or mobile fuelling station on your site.

¹LNG delivery is an optional service that FortisBC can provide to you at a regulated rate.