Posted on 03/18/2011 8:49:32 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
With nearly 12 million vehicles around the world running on compressed natural gas these days, but only 120,000 of them in the U.S., opportunity looms in a country that is weary of expensive crude oil from increasingly unfriendly nations and home to a vast supply of natural gas.
“Without question, natural gas will allow our country to transition our transportation system away from expensive and carbon-heavy gasoline and diesel towards carbon-light, affordable American produced natural gas,” says Aubrey K. McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy.
McClendon’s company, the second-largest natural gas producer in the country, is trumpeting the discovery in the past three years of what most energy experts call a 120-year supply of inexpensive domestic natural gas that can be brought to the surface with revolutionary new drilling technologies. Thirty-two of the 50 US states now produce their own natural gas.
Chesapeake and other producers also are actively engaged in the buildout of filling stations that serve CNG-powered vehicles. The current paucity of them—less than 1,000 nationwide versus 200,000 gasoline stations—is viewed by most experts as the chief impediment to more widespread use.
“Producers like Encana, Chesapeake, Apache and Pioneer are aggressively seeding the market,” says Rich Kolodziej, president of Natural Gas Vehicles America, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association. “They have the self-interest to get out and cause stations to be built, by underwriting some of the cost.
“It all comes down to taking risk off the back of the station operator,” he adds. “Service station operators serve customers, they don’t create them. For natural gas to gain acceptance as an everyday transportation fuel, someone has to beat the bushes to create customers.”
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
10 Things You Should Know About Natural Gas Vehicles
http://gigaom.com/cleantech/10-things-you-should-know-about-natural-gas-vehicles/
EXCERPT :
1). Infrastructure bottleneck: Like the “hydrogen highway” compressed natural gas vehicles need fueling stations. According to the natural gas vehicle trade group the Natural Gas Vehicles for America (NGVA) there are over 1,100 stations in the U.S. That might sound like a lot, but only half are available to the public, and compare that to the around 200,000+ U.S. gas stations. The U.S. would need a lot more natural gas stations to power a third of its vehicles. Who’s going to be the first to make that investment?
2). Greenhouse Gas Reductions: The NGVA also says that natural gas vehicles produce 20 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than a standard gas vehicle. That’s about the same as corn-based ethanol, which according to the EPA has a greenhouse gas reduction of 21.8 percent compared to gas-powered cars. So for greenhouse gas reductions its pretty good—but not perfect.
3). “Natural gas is the cleanest transportation fuel available today”: That’s what Pickens and the EPA say about natural-gas powered vehicles. It’s because, in addition to carbon dioxide reductions, NGVs also emit less carbon monoxide, non-methane organic gas and nitrogen oxides.
4). Natural gas is still a fossil fuel: Natural gas might be cleaner-burning than oil but it’s still a hydrocarbon that has to be taken out of wells and is in limited supply. The California Energy Commission says that with the rising demand for natural gas (accompanied by high oil prices) more than 15 percent of our natural gas will be imported from countries other than Canada and Mexico by 2025.
5). The Honda Civic GX: The natural gas consumer car that costs $24,590. It’s sold in California and New York and has a 170 mile fuel range.
6). Smaller Range: Natural gas vehicles have a shorter driving range than regular gas-powered vehicles, because natural gas has a lower energy content compared to gas.
7). State and Federal Incentives: Honda says the Civic GX is eligible for a combination of federal (under the Energy Policy Act of 1992), state and local incentives that could help reduce the price tag by several thousand dollars. Natural gas vehicles can also drive in the carpool lanes in some states like California.
8). With Gas Prices High, Natural Gas is Cheap, For Now: With the price of gas rising, the demand at the natural gas fuel stations that are out there is way up — like this one in Salt Lake City. That’s because, as Cleantechnica puts it “natural gas now costs about half as much per unit energy as gasoline and has an even greater cost advantage over diesel fuel.” Though natural gas prices are also going up.
9). City Fleets: The GX might get a lot of press, but a significant portion of the natural gas vehicles on the road in the U.S. are owned and maintained by cities and companies. Companies like UPS have placed orders for hundreds of natural gas vehicles; several cities in California have converted their fleets to NGVs.
10). Home Fueling: A company called FuelMaker makes a natural gas home refueler called Phill. Seriously, that’s what they named it.
Something to consider:
EXCERPT:
America, the Saudi Arabia of natural gas
The North American economy may still be too dependent on oil — and imported oil at that — but it has massive reserves of another, still-being-tapped energy source: natural gas.
A new report in The Economist notes that huge reserves across the continent may make both the US and Canada power-brokers in world energy markets:
“North America has an unforeseen surfeit of natural gas. The United States’ purchases of LNG have dwindled. It has enough gas under its soil to inspire dreams of self-sufficiency. Other parts of the world may also be sitting on lots of gas. Those in the vanguard of this global gas revolution say it will transform the battle against carbon, threaten coal’s domination of electricity generation and, by dramatically reducing the power of exporters of oil and conventional gas, turn the geopolitics of energy on its head.”
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST
Not enough for everyone yet, but the list continues to grow. Naturally, some areas have better coverage than others.
Natural Gas Related Links including suppliers and conversions
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/fuels/natural_gas_related.html
Personally I think they are fine for short range fleet vehicles but I wouldn’t want one due to the shorter range between refills.
Way back in the olden days of the early 80s they converted our school buses to propane but they had switched back to gasoline by the 90s.
Years ago they built compressed gas farm tractors, don’t know why it was stopped. A natural gas system combined with diesel has already been proven as a cost effective way to increase horse power while increasing mileage in large transportation vehicles, but available of compressed gas. At refueling stations has always been the weak link.
I had a discussion with a city mechanic charged with maintaining NGVs for a fair sized Arizona city. He says they are prone to failure and difficult to maintain.
Uhh....
Yeah....
I’m old enough to have heard this in the 70’s, too
(The vehicles that is. Although the cities are probably prone to failure and difficult to maintain, also.)
those who do not want us to be a world power (read...the White House and the Dhimmi party) and prefer their peasants subservient...are putting blockades in the way of developing our gas reserves in the Marcellus Shale...
Natural gas vehicles also have to tote around a heavy tank designed to carry lots of high pressure methane.
These tanks have to be able to withstand puncture, traffic accidents, heat, cold, and fire damage. This is a tall order, indeed.
I’d buy one tomorrow if I could fill it up at home. The Phil system was killed off a few years ago.
The 200 mile range is crappy for extended trips, but great for local driving...and I have a lot more confidence in this country’s natural gas supply than I do with electricity (since more and more coal-fired generating plants keep shutting down).
If there´s any potential in this at all, soetoro will kill it.
We have friends who years ago converted a full size van to NG when he was working for one of the gas companies around here.One tank would take them for about 700mi...the only problem was that the tank took up much of the van’s room in back.It is a great way to run vehicles but they need to figure out how to compress the gas more.They may have doen that by now I don’t know this was he mid 90’s when they did this.
2011 CNG Plan (Atlanta Gas Light intends to ‘seed’ CNG auto market)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2660309/posts
CNG is another example of where the free market will find the right solution, with or without government “direction”.
The govt. is pushing every alternative energy scheme you can name (from solar to wind to ethanol), everything that is except CNG.
So what is private enterprise pursiung? CNG. Why? Because it works.
I want one too!
I’ve read the Phill was unreliable and short lived.
Is anybody working on a better home compressor system?
They build nat gas Honda Civics here in Indiana, it would be a perfect 2nd car for a retiree like myself.
I’ve got a 1000sf workshop with 220v so I’m ready when somebody comes up with a good compressor.
Check out these tests on natural gas tanks.
http://www.cngutah.com/faq.html
OPPPSS perhaps it was propane they converted to?
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