Posted on 04/24/2009 6:47:49 AM PDT by MAD-AS-HELL
WASHINGTON, DC - April 6, 2009: Amidst charges that embattled American Honda is systematically suppressing its compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle program, the company has suddenly fueled that impression by throwing into bankruptcy its wholly-owned CNG refueling company, Fuelmaker.
Toronto-based Fuelmaker was arguably the lynchpin of CNG’s future as a bridge solution to alternative fuel. The firm manufactured and distributed the essential refueling appliance that allowed home-based and fleet refueling of CNG vehicles, including the Honda Civic GX, heralded as the “greenest car in America.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theautochannel.com ...
Question - Is CNG a different technology than Fuel Cell? Is it possible that Honda a abandoning the one to pursue the other more agressively. I was a road review clip on Top Gear that praised the Honda fuel cell car [whose model name escapes me at the moment.
Ping!....er, Knock, ....er, HMMMMMM............or whatever.............
Hissss is more like it...
WHY! If there were any money to be made they would have stuck with it. I don't know if it is true or not but I have heard that using CNG is very bad on cars engines because of its corrosive effects and non-lubricating properties. Maybe they are avoiding another ethanol like debacle
“Top Gear that praised the Honda fuel cell car [whose model name escapes me at the moment.”
James May thought it was going to change the world.
Unless you are a stockholder then this is totally none of your business and your outrage is totally unjustified.
My boyfriend has purchased two CNG vehicles in the last year, and hasn’t been able to fill them up (with CNG, anyway, but fortunately they are bi-fuel) because he can’t find a delivery system.
He looked into Honda’s Fuelmaker, but the problem with it is that it is not only expensive to buy but very expensive to maintain. The main component has to be rebuilt every so often, at a cost of several thousand dollars.
The small model designed for home use, the “Phill,” also takes about 8 hours to fill an average CNG tank.
If it’s such a good business to be in, why don’t you buy it out of bankruptcy and run it.
Or are you mad because you made a bad investment and are getting burned?
CNG is Compressed Natural Gas, similar to propane. You have a conventional internal combustion engine that runs on hydrocarbons just like everyone else. CNG is a “cleaner” fuel with respect to some emissions.
A Fuel cell is an electrical generator that may use hydrocarbons, indeed may use CNG as a fuel source.
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
CNG has other problems, fuel tanks are not particularly durable, constant pressure changes cause fatigue in the tanks and they require replacement periodically.
Because of the heat generated during filling the tanks can not be filled to capacity unless a slow fill is done which takes nearly 8 hours. A fast fill will result in even less range of the limited range advertised.
Long live gasoline.
You may be interested.
That’s the problem I had with a CNG pickup at work. We could connect our truck to one of two outlets, slow flow or high flow. The high flow would fill the truck in about the same time a gas pump would fill it up but only with about 1/3 the CNG as the slow flow. The slow flow took all night to completly fill the truck but with enough CNG to last 2 or 3 days of normal driving. With several CNG vehicles in the fleet we had to take turns connecting to the slow flow. After about two years my employer cut it losses and dumped the CNG pickups replacing them with diesel.
It’s underhanded and outrageous that Honda ran their company as they saw fit? Why don’t you turn lemons into lemonade—make your own CNG and the world will sing your praises.
Amen. And the stockholders should applaud the move.
They tried this enterprise, probably under political pressure or tax incentives, and it is no longer viable.
Sometimes you just got to kick your kid to the curb and let them make it on their own.
And if it is a viable program, it should be a bargain for some alternate fuel advocates to put their money where their mouth is.
I have no problem if the business wasn’t working. It’s just how Honda went about shutting it down. Sometimes I wonder if people actually read the actual articles that are posted. Maybe you did but knowing a bit about how Honda, this move isn’t typical of how they want to be viewed as a company.
There would be less problems if they had chosen to go the LNG or Propane route. The suppliers & dealers are pretty much already in place. Just change out the bottles.
CNG is a premium fuel. It burns significantly “cleaner” because CNG has a higher ratio of Hydrogen to Carbon than does gasoline. CNG is roughly 25% carbon and gasoline is roughly 50% carbon. The emmissions are cleaner and the lube oil does not get as contaminated.
The mentioned storage and refueling problems are the disadvantages.
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