San Francisco-based technology company BlackPak on Thursday announced it won a $4.6 million agreement with the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) to develop a new natural gas fuel tank for CNG-powered vehicles.
According to the company’s project, the low volumetric density of natural gas limits the driving range of natural gas vehicles and makes cost-effective storage solutions a major challenge. They’re currently too big, too cumbersome, and too expensive to make.
Blackpak utilizes carbon to build the tanks and a nano-porous sorbent is used as the actual fuel container inside.
BlackPak is working with ATMI, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATMI) and SRI International on these adsorbed natural gas storage systems for automotive and commercial applications.
Investing in New York’s Natural Gas Infrastructure
We all heard about the tragic explosion in Manhattan last week, but did we all hear about the culprit behind it? It wasn’t a terrorist, and it wasn’t a careless employee or tenant. It was a 127 year-old gas main that was poorly maintained. We’ve talked about similar problems with the water infrastructure and the opportunities for investment there. There are similar ones for natural gas.
