Compressed natural gas cng is an alternative fuel for vehicles made by compressing natural gas to less than 1 percent of its standard volume. You can even convert a conventional car to run on natural gas. There is information about government and industry research and development related to compressed natural gas cng and liquefied natural gas lng engines and vehicles. One of the principal factors motivating governments to encourage the widespread adoption of compressed natural gas cng vehicles is the reduction of local air pollution.
Join date nov 2005 posts 491 location colebrook, n. Natural gas has set the standard for demonstrating greater and greater emission reductions. The energy policy act of 1992 required federal and states governments to add alternativefuel, lightduty vehicles to their fleets in major metropolitan areas. Benefits of compressed natural gas cng natural gas vehicles run on cleanburning, compressed natural gas, which has a number of advantages over gasoline or diesel. Natural gas fuel may be stored on a vehicle or piece of equipment either as a pressurized gas cng or as a cryogenic liquid lng. Natural gas vehicles background historically, natural gas has played a limited role as a transportation fuel in the united states. Compressed natural gas in australia worldwide there are 16. Natural gas can be used either by converting an existing gasoline or diesel engine, or by using a purpose built natural gas engine. Local municipalities are doing the same with city buses, and the federal government is making the push to only buy or lease vehicles that run on alternative fuels like cng by 2015. The use of compressed natural gas as a fuel has been growing since the 1970s. Compressed natural gas vehicles look and feel like conventional cars. At a high pressure refuel depot that dispenses high pressure hydrogen or compressed natural gas to vehicles, the thermal energy heat generated by the high flow rate of the high pressure refueling gas is evacuated from the on board fuel tanks of vehicles eliminating the need for refueling pre treatments such as a slow fill, secondary precooling, and pressure overfill otherwise used to.
Strategies to implement natural gas as an automotive fuel appendix a selected suppliers of natural gas vehicles, components and fueling equipment appendix b states and areas affected by the 1990 caaa appendix c conversion to metric units. Compressed natural gas is one of the cleanest burning fuels available, making it a smart and environmentally friendly choice. Reviewers in general say they are relatively uninspiring to drive. Pdf effects of gas composition on the performance and. Compressed natural gas or cng is the most common form of natural gas used in vehicles, but engines for heavyduty. Higher usage of cng vehicles reduces the emission levels of nonmethane organic gases.
Lewis 2005 added that the cng is free of benzene and therefore. Natural gas vehicles are saddled by a number of drawbacks. Natural gas vehicles opportunities and challenges in the transportation sector kathryn clay, ph. Work continues on revisiting the cnglng specifications. Currently natural gas powers about 112,000 vehicles in the united states and roughly 14. The air powered vehicle is an ecofriendly vehicle which works on compressed air. Natural gas vehicles ngvs provide comparable mileage and comfort, while their tailpipe. It has been proposed for greater use as a fuel for onroad vehicles, particularly in lightduty vehicles. New compressed natural gas vehicles are subject to the same. Waterfree anhydrous ethanol, with 15% added gasoline e85 for use in gasoline.
Natural gas vehicles should not be confused with vehicles powered by lpg mainly propane, which is a fuel with a fundamentally different composition in a natural gas powered vehicle, energy is released by combustion of essentially methane gas ch. An air driven engine is a pneumatic actuator that creates useful work by expanding compressed air. Fuel economy of 20 compressed natural gas vehicles. Compressed natural gas engines also produce less greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming. Pdf technical overview of compressed natural gas cng as a. Another option for natural gas transportstorage is compressed natural gas cng. Compressed natural gas specifications for motor vehicles. Vehicles produce about half of the greenhouse gases from a typical u. Top 7 mistakes newbies make going solar avoid these for effective power harvesting from the sun duration.
Epa mpg owner mpg estimates 20 honda civic natural gas 4 cyl, 1. A natural gas vehicle ngv is an alternative fuel vehicle that uses compressed natural gas cng or liquefied natural gas lng. Highpressure compressed natural gas, mainly composed of methane, that is used to. Archived pdf from the original on 11 november 2009. Liquefied petroleum gas and cng compressed natural gas. Lng, compressed natural gas cng and hydrogen is considered an opportunity to. As shown in figure 3, a cng vehicles fuel storage tank is mounted in the back of a vehicle and takes up about half of what is the trunk in a traditional vehicle.
An alternative fuel vehicle is a motor vehicle that runs on a fuel other than traditional petroleum. The development of natural gas vehicles in the us is fostered by the federal government. Compressed natural gas cng is a fuel that can be used in place of gasoline, diesel fuel and. In recent years, 80% to 90% of the natural gas used in the united states was domestically produced.
Cng and lng for vehicles and ships the facts transport. Basic questions about natural gas as a transportation fuel. Remember that highpressure gases are used safely every day in industrial and medical applications. The 2015 cng honda civic gets 31 mpge, according to federal fueleconomy stats. Particles from compressed natural gas cng engine emissions are smaller than those from diesel or even petrol engine emissions and range from 0. Epa mpg owner mpg estimates 2000 ford crown victoria cng 8 cyl, 4. The first is the effect of natural gas fuel composition on vehicles study, which is being conducted by the university of california at riverside. Natural gas as a transport fuel is not a new story. Natural gas in vehicles is inexpensive and convenient. But fewer than half of them are available to the public and more than a fifth are located in california.
Natural gas vehicles ngv are one of the best kept secrets except in the u. Of these natural gas stations, the vast majority are equipped for cngpowered vehicles. Natural gas vehicles natural gas can be used in all classes of vehicles motorcycles, cars, vans, light and heavy duty trucks, buses, lift trucks, locomotives, even ships and ferries. Though these vehicles are selling out faster than they are made and production is. Highpressure direct injection engines burn natural gas in a compressionignition diesel cycle. Natural gas actually has safety advantages compared to gasoline and diesel, because it is nontoxic, and will not cause contamination in the event of a release. Offering greater cost stability and environmental benefits, cng is becoming known as the vehicle fueling option for a sustainable future. Almost 3,000 of these natural gas vehicles are in australia and indicators suggest that australia will.
Some safety features of compressed natural gas vehicles. Both are clean burning, domestically produced, relatively low priced, and widely available. After the natural gas is injected into the engine, the fuelair mixture is compressed and ignited by a spark plug. Compressed natural gas vehicles require a greater amount of space for fuel.
As used in the systems covered by this standard, it tends to rise and diffuses rapidly in air when it escapes from the system. Compressed natural gas vehicle maintenance facility. Fuel economy of 2000 compressed natural gas vehicles. The nations only lightduty, factoryproduced cng vehicle in production, the honda civic natural gas, has been on the market since 1998. However, natural gas has been slow to gain traction in u. Natural gas vehicles ngvs are a good choice for highmileage high fueluse fleetssuch as buses, medium and heavyduty trucks, and refuse vehicles that are centrally fueled or operate within a limited area or. Road vehicles compressed natural gas cng fuel system components cng lowpressure flexible fuel line with end connections, cng fuel line having pressure not exceeding 2. Natural gas is considered to be a promising alternative fuel for passenger cars, truck transportation and stationary engines providing positive effects both on the environment and energy security. Cars using natural gas are estimated to emit 20% less greenhouse gases than gasoline or diesel cars. Natural gas is safe and natural gas vehicles have an excellent safety record. Cng in your car theres currently a lot of excitement about cngs ability to supplement or even replace. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Compressed natural gas motor vehicle fuel regulation title, ccr, section 2292.
Compressed natural gas for vehicles pacific gas and. Natural gas vehicle an overview sciencedirect topics. Roughly 250,000 of the 12 million cng vehicles worldwide are in the u. More than 12 million vehicles on the road worldwide use cng. Most natural gas is drawn from wells or extracted in conjunction with crude oil production. Some heavyduty vehicles use sparkignited natural gas systems, but other systems exist as well. The natural gas fleet savings calculator is a spreadsheet based, total cost of ownership evaluation tool designed to help fleet owners conduct a preliminary analysis of the total costs associated with converting a fleet, or part of a fleet, to natural gas. Qualified system retrofitters can also economically, safely, and reliably convert many vehicles for natural gas operation. Volkswagen caddy caddy maxi life ecofuel cng mpv man. Cng and lng must be handled the same as other pressurized gases or cryogenic liquids.
It is a light gas, weighing about twothirds as much as air. Study of lpg liquefied petroleum gas and cng compressed natural gas vehicles and its. Another reason consumers arent buying natural gas cars. In addition, noise emissions from compressed natural gas fuel engines are less intrusive than those from diesel engines. Introduction and background the oxford institute for energy studies oies has published two papers in the last twelve months on the demand outlook for lng as a marine fuel le fevre, 2018, sharples, 2019. Technical statement on commercial natural gas in cng. First natural gas car as of 2009, there were over 11 million compressed natural gas cng vehicles worldwide. The pros and cons of naturalgas vehicles fox business.
Pdf technical overview of compressed natural gas cng. Expanding the use of natural gas in vehicles also runs counter to efforts to reduce eus gas imports and energy dependence. If youre a fleet owner looking for safe, economical fleet vehicles that can meet stringent air quality regulations, switching to natural gas vehicles ngvs may be the perfect option. Typically, cng is filled via a compressor into pressurized steel gas cylinders and, in analogy to other commercially traded gases, transported to the site of the consumer by truck in bundles of up to 25 cylinders. In many countries natural gaspowered vehicles are introduced to replace buses, taxis, and other public vehicle fleets. Natural gas vehicles ngvs are good choices for highmileage, centrally fueled fleets because they can provide similar fuel range support for applications not involved in longhaul routes where fuel stations can become sparse. Pdf bangladesh is a country, full of natural resources such as coal, gas, stone etc. An air powered vehicle uses the expansion of compressed air to drive the pistons of an engine. Natural gaspowered vehicles are designed and built to be safe, both during normal driving and in the event of an accident. Fuel efficiency for compressed natural gas vehicles can be difficult for the consumer to calculate, as the metric for fuel efficiency in cng and lng vehicles isnt actually miles per gallon mpgs, but is mpge miles per gasoline gallon equivalent. Natural gas is compressed as cng to be used as fuel in the vehicles with the alternative being.
Natural gas, like all vehicle fuels, can be used safely if properly handled. While their engines and fuel systems are modified to make use of natural gas, cng vehicles are otherwise quite similar to existing gasoline or diesel cars. This paper presents the worldwide background, prospects and challenges of natural gas fuel and natural gas fueled vehicles along with. Additional precautions to avoid gas leaks and prevent accumulation of any leaked gas to explosive fuelair. Natural gas vehicle availability there are many heavyduty natural gas vehicles ngvsas well as a number of mediumduty ngvsavailable from original equipment manufacturers. Options and challenges congressional research service 4 becomes suitable for use in a vehicle engine. This can mean burning natural gas in an internal combustion engine like those used in most natural gas, gasoline, dieselpowered vehicles on. Natural gas could compete with gasoline in the automobile fuel market. Cng compressed natural gas methane stored at high pressure, typically 2025 mpa. Vehicles powered by this economical fuel are eligible for a clean air vehicle sticker, which allows single occupants to drive in high occupancy vehicle hov lanes. According to the industry group ngv global, there are more than 15. Interest in natural gas fueled vehicles has grown substantially in recent years as people seek lower cost alternatives to gasoline and diesel.