Trillium CNG, a provider of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle fueling facilities and part of the Love’s Family of Companies, announced plans to expand its services. The company will design, build, and maintain hydrogen fueling stations. Trillium’s new services also include electric vehicle charging infrastructure, solar panel installation, and microgrid design and construction.

The company will begin construction on its first hydrogen fueling station for fuel-cell electric buses this summer for the Orange County Transportation Authority’s (OCTA) Santa Ana, Calif. facility.

“While compressed natural gas remains a high priority for Trillium, diversification of customer needs, products, and services within the transportation industry is driving our expansion,” said Bill Cashmareck, managing director of Trillium CNG. “Each alternative fueling source has its own set of benefits, and we want to meet the needs of our Customers in as many ways as possible.”

Trillium will install hydrogen fueling at OCTA’s Santa Ana facility. The station will fuel transit buses with approximately 35 kilograms of hydrogen per bus in six to 10 minutes simultaneously from two fueling lanes. OCTA’s hydrogen bus fleet will comprise of 10 hydrogen fuel-cell electric buses, but the station is built for future growth and will provide the same fueling performance for a fleet of 50 buses. Infrastructure will be added to OCTA’s existing CNG fueling lanes. The current station was designed and built by Trillium in 2007 and continues to be maintained by Trillium.

“OCTA has a long history of implementing clean sustainable technology into our fleet. As we look toward the future, it’s important we continue expanding these efforts,” said Cliff Thorne, OCTA’s director of maintenance and motorist services. “What’s critical is ensuring we meet the needs of the agency from an operational perspective and continue delivering high-quality transit service for our riders.”

The project is the result of several groups working together. Air Products & Chemicals Inc., the leader in hydrogen fuel and technology in North America, will supply and deliver liquid hydrogen, a cryogenic liquid fuel, on a weekly basis to the facility. The fuel will then be pumped and vaporized into high pressure gas before being dispensed onto buses. The Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) a nonprofit that advocates for clean, sustainable, innovative transportation and energy technologies, is managing the project. CTE secured funds for the project from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) through the California Climate Investments program, a statewide program that puts billions of cap-and-trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment.

Trillium has plans to introduce electric vehicle charging stations for its customers and at select Love’s Travel Stops locations later this year. Solar panel installation and microgrid design and construction will also be introduced later this year.