Natural gas vehicle

A natural gas vehicle, or NGV, is an alternative fuel vehicle that uses (compressed or liquefied) natural gas instead of other fossil fuels.

Natural gas

Natural gas is a mixture. It consists mainly of hydrocarbons. The main component is methane. Natural gas is often found in the ground together with petroleum.

Storage and Transport

The main difficulty in the use of natural gas is transportation. Natural gas pipelines are economical, but are impractical across oceans. Liquefied natural gas tankers are also used.

Compressed natural gas (CNG) is stored in containers at high pressure. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is stored at temperatures as low as - 260 °F (- 162 °C). At these temperature conditions, natural gas is in a liquid state.

Natural gas vehicle and technology

History

Étienne Lenoir built the first gas engine in 1862. Before then, there had only been fuel and diesel engines. Over the years, gas was used in many different machines, so the technology improved as well. By the 1950s, the automobile industry focused more on fuel technology than on gas technology. There have only been a few cars with natural gas technology and few gas stations which offered natural gas. Because of the climate and environment, the role of natural gas became more and more important.

Current development

There are about 5.7 million natural gas vehicles in the world. Together, Argentina, Brasilia, and Pakistan have 4.2 million.

Europe

The French automobile producer Citroen is cooperating with a French gas supplier and wants to offer a compressor which is connected to the private gas connection at home, so that everyone can refuel their car at home. The price for the compressor will be about 500€. There will be also a tax reduction for people who have bought a new NGV. The business group Carrefour wants to install natural gas stations. (Region Toulouse)

In London and surrounding areas, NGVs are free from paying the city toll. Owners of NGVs have to pay less motor vehicle tax.

Until 2011, MAN delivered 135 busses with natural gas engines for the municipal use of the city Den Haag.

Asia

The Turkish capital Ankara will increase their use of natural gas vehicles by about 500.

India has already started a development programme to reduce pollution.

Pakistan has many NGVs. Meanwhile, there are about 1.4 million cars.

In Thailand, the government is planning a switch from fuel gas stations to natural gas stations, and to develop the NGVs.

America

In Brasilia, the police of Rio de Janeiro had 632 natural gas vehicles.

The use of NGV in the USA makes it possible to maintain under the Ultra Low Emission Vehicle Standards (ULEV).

Technology- how does it work?

There are two variants of NG-technology: The bifuel version, which means that the vehicle can drive with fuel or natural gas, or the monofuel version, which means that the vehicle can only drive with natural gas. In principle, the natural gas engine works like a otto-engine, the only significant difference is that this engine needs a natural gas-air-mix instead of fuel-air-mix.

A conversion is possible with each car with a few exceptions.

The automobile industry will offer a new natural gas technology with turbo --> Turbo natural gas (TNG).

Companies which use this technology

Profitability

The advantages of natural gas are the lower price in comparison with fuel and the lower tax rate.

Supply in Germany

Since January, 2008, there are 771 natural gas stations in Germany. The supply network will expand constantly.The E.ON Gas Mobil GmbH wants to install over 150 natural gas stations close to the freeways.

Conclusion

The natural gas technology was and is still very popular. Because of the current gas-conflict in Russia, natural gas became less popular. However, natural gas is a finite resource. The prices for gas will increase in the next years (like fuel), so there will be needed new technologies in the future.

Other websites