Thanks to Ed Farrell of the Wentworth Institute of Technology, an NAFTC National Training Center, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino now owns a 2005 Chevy Tahoe that runs on compressed natural gas (CNG), one of only a few such sport utility vehicles (SUVs) in the country. Farrell worked on the automobile with a team from Baytech Corporation, a California company who supplied the conversion kit.

NAFTC file photo A look at the installed conversion kit used to allow the 2005 Chevy Tahoe to run on compressed natural gas.

The newly-converted SUV will emit one-tenth of the limit required by Massachusetts emissions standards, according to Farrell.

“It’s definitely going to make an impression,” he said. “That you could take an SUV and make it run as clean as a hybrid and not run on foreign oil—is that not a good thing?”

Farrell, who teaches an alternative fuels course at Wentworth and also owns Dudley Automotive Services in Arlington, Massachusetts, said he bid on the project through Keyspan, the largest distributor of natural gas in the Northeast. The company and its partner, AVSG, operate seven CNG filling stations around the Boston area.

NAFTC file photo The CNG-powered 2005 Chevy Tahoe that was converted by Wentworth Institute of Technology Instructor Ed Farrell.

Farrell learned Mayor Menino would be driving the converted Tahoe early on in the project and was encouraged to have such a high profile client.

There hasn’t been anyone in the political world who has stepped forward and thought about doing environmentally friendly fuel vehicles,” he said. “Not a lot of people say, ‘Do it to my car.’”