Demand Jumps for Renewable Natural Gas, RNG-Powered Trucks
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Freightliner has opened its order book for fifth-generation Cascadia tractors powered by Cummins’ X15N natural gas engine.
The announcement on the opening day of the recent 2025 Advanced Clean Transportation Expo in Anaheim, Calif., provided a focal point for a show floor abuzz with talk of a surge in demand for renewable natural gas and RNG-powered trucks.
The Cascadia, America’s best-selling Class 8 tractor, received an overhaul in 2024, with the fifth-generation model launching in October. Daimler Truck North America unit Freightliner previously revealed in October 2023 that customers would be able to buy Cascadias equipped with the X15N.
Full production of Cummins’ X15N natural gas engine got underway in September 2024.
Executives at ACT viewed the X15N being available to fleets on Cascadias as a transformative moment for RNG and gas-powered vehicles, although it was already available for Kenworth’s T680 and T880 models and Peterbilt’s 579 semi, 567 vocational and 520 refuse models.
“The opportunity to tap into the entire [truck] market is huge,” Hexagon Agility’s new CEO Philipp Schramm told TT in an interview on the sidelines of ACT, which took place April 28-May 1.
Hexagon manufactures the pressurized cylinders and fueling systems required by gas-powered engines. The company opened an assembly and installation plant in Rialto, Calif., in November 2024 in order to double production capacity alongside the launch of the X15N.
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“It really feels as though people are starting to lean in on RNG and compressed natural gas,” Opal Fuels co-CEO Adam Comora said in an interview, adding that the latest edition of ACT was the most exciting for him in years.
White Plains, N.Y.-based Opal builds fueling stations as well as both landfill and dairy RNG production facilities.
ACT Expo was launched in 2011 and at that time there were just 31 operational RNG production facilities in the U.S., according to the RNG Coalition, which until early April was known as the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas.
By the end of 2025, the trade group expects at least 500 to be in operation and almost as many are under construction or development.
RNG, also known as biomethane, can be transported along regular natural gas pipelines and historically was consumed more by power generation facilities as well as buses and Class 8 refuse trucks.
Newport Beach, Calif.-based Clean Energy Fuels is the largest RNG supplier, owning and operating 620 fueling stations in 42 states.
A Nopetro plant under construction. (Nopetro)
But the company’s top executive told ACT attendees that the fuel was on the precipice of great change. “We did pretty well with the wrong engine. Now, we have the right engine,” CEO Andrew Littlefair said of the X15N.
U.S. RNG producers will need to manufacture around 115 million to 120 million gallons of RNG in 2026 if Cummins’ 8%-10% Class 8 market share ambitions for the X15N come to fruition, said Littlefair.
Clean Energy is developing six additional RNG projects with BP.
Opal has 47 refueling stations under construction.
“We spent a long time creating a refueling experience that replicates that of diesel,” Comora said, noting a stark difference with other alternatives to diesel such as battery-electric or hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks.
Opal has built 50 behind-the-fence refueling sites for UPS Inc. The sites fuel 5,000 tractors on a daily basis.
“We’re still in the early innings of adoption,” Comora said, adding: “Maybe we’re in the second inning now, with public refueling coming in the fourth inning.”
Unlike with other biofuels, there’s no cap on RNG production due to a paucity of feedstock as Americans continue to produce ever more waste, and cows do the same.
The production facilities are on the way too from a multitude of new and established developers.
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Nopetro Energy Executive Vice President Scott Brinner said the company turned on its first production plant in Vero Beach, Fla., on April 28.
Miami-based Nopetro has two more production facilities expected to come online in the next 12 months in Florida and on the New Mexico-Texas border, Brinner said.
The company plans to add a further 12 production facilities at a pace of between one and four a year. All will use landfill gas.
Nopetro currently has four refueling facilities up and running that it built and operates. It operates a further 12 for third parties. Looking forward, Nopetro expects to build between one and four facilities a year, the executive said.
Opal has 11 production facilities up and running and six or seven under construction, said co-CEO Jonathan Maurer.
Infrastructure is key, the executives said, noting the slower-than-expected adoption of battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell technology over fears about range, refueling and maintenance.
In November, Hexagon bought Specialty Fleet Services, a mobile natural gas vehicle maintenance provider in order to minimize downtime for trucks equipped with its products. The division currently has 14 service vehicles, executives said. Sales are not the most important factor for Hexagon, said Chief Commercial Officer Eric Bippus — it is fleet care.
Peterbilt, Freightliner and Penske all showcased X15N engine trucks at the show.
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