[chrisser]

I’ve looked into NG for vehicles a little.

I live in the city and work not too far outside it.

There is one natural gas filling station in the area, and by coincidence, it’s not too far from my house at the the local gas utility’s facility.

But there are two problems...

1) The gas filling station is not open to the public

2) The EPA has made it practically impossible to convert an existing vehicle to natural gas (or propane, for that matter) legally. Conversions have to be “certified” and tested, meaning they are very expensive and only available for a limited number of vehicles.

In the current environment, it’s only practical for fleet usage.

[thackney]

Propane would not be much dollar savings.

Propane contains 92,500 BTUs per gallon.
Gasoline contains 125,000 BTUs per gallon.

So Propane at $2.59 per gallon delivers energy at the same price as gasoline at $3.50 per gallon.

[jdsteel]

But there are two problems... 1) The gas filling station is not open to the public 2) The EPA has made it practically impossible to convert an existing vehicle to natural gas (or propane, for that matter) legally. Conversions have to be “certified” and tested, meaning they are very expensive and only available for a limited number of vehicles. In the current environment, it’s only practical for fleet usage.

Where I live in Pennsylvania that is changing. There are a few small companies that will convert a gasoline only engine to dual use for about $4,000. The vehicle will switch from one to another automatically and is EPA OK. A company called Sheetz has many filling stations throughout the region and they are in the process of adding CNG to their choice of fuels. Not a big jump, since they also sell propane gas for grills and such.