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An Introduction to Natural Gas as a Fuel

Although Europe is unlikely to ever rely solely on natural gas for fuelling vehicles, the use of this abundant resource could in part alleviate the demand on fossil fuels. In other parts of the world, notably Asia, natural gas based fuels are dominant, with the government mandating its use in certain transport sectors.

You may be familiar with LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) or Autogas. It has been around for a while. Many older, large capacity cars have been converted to run on LPG in the UK, with a large storage tank in the boot and the ability to run on petrol when no LPG is available. The advantage to the owner is a much lower fuel cost, with the actual price per unit volume less than half that of petrol at the time of writing (although the fuel is less energy dense so overall savings are more like 40%). A side benefit is of course a significant reduction in emissions, with carbon dioxide pollutants estimated as 20% less than an equivalent petrol engine and other toxic compounds reduced dramatically.

It is possible to convert most petrol cars to LPG if required, though the conversion itself is not always cheap and may require the reduction of luggage capacity thanks to the addition of a large additional fuel tank in the boot. Some car makers offer new cars for sale as bi-fuel models, in particular Saab, Nissan, Ford, Volvo and Vauxhall, which offer the best, integrated solutions. Some of these are eligible for avoidance of the congestion charge, which is why there may be an increase of bi-fuel commercial vehicles on the market in the near future.

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) has received a favourable response in recent times, but has yet to make a significant impact on the market as yet. It is different again from LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas), which must be transported in cryogenic conditions and is unlikely to ever be used in regular cars.

Wednesday June 6

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