Natural Gas Can Power Vehicles OR Electric Power Plants
There is nothing really new about using Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as a vehicle fuel. It works well in internal combustion engines and it is possible to squeeze enough energy on board in a reasonable size tank at a reasonable pressure to provide gasoline or diesel equivalent range. There are modification kits available for a number of automobiles, there is at least one production automobile (Honda Civic GX) and there are a number of options for buses (Viking CNG BS-III, New Flyer C/L30LF, C/L35LF, C/L40LF, etc.) suitable for municipal fleets.
The new thing, the reason that talk about CNG is growing, is that natural gas now costs about half as much per unit energy as gasoline and has an even greater cost advantage over diesel fuel.
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With new software and lean-burning regimes available, CNG powered engines have improved their fuel economy to the point where they have reached essential parity with engines powered by the sister fossil fuels of gasoline and diesel. To compare fuel cost per mile, it is not a bad approximation to compare fuel costs per BTU, (or MMBTU, or therm).
I know, there are enough different units out there to cause some confusion, but if you want to do battle with the energy suppliers, you have to learn their language. Two thumb rules worth knowing - multiply the cost of natural gas in $/MMBTU by 6 and you will find out how much an oil equivalent barrel of natural gas costs. Multiply the cost of a gallon of diesel fuel by 7 and you will find out its cost in $/MMBTU.
One of my most frequently visited web sites is Bloomberg.com: Energy Prices where you can find the market prices for a number of different fuels. There you can find daily market prices (without taxes and retail mark ups) for natural gas, gasoline and distillate fuels (heating oil and diesel fuel are essentially the same composition.) Example: today, natural gas delivered to New York City gate (a trading hub) costs $13.92, the equivalent of $83.50 per barrel when converted to oil equivalent units. Diesel fuel costs $3.92 per gallon, the equivalent of $27.50 per MMBTU. Arm yourself with this information and you can see why people in decision making positions are looking hard at CNG again.
CNG vehicles have been around for a while, have good track records for safety and cleanliness, and have a growing pool of satisfied customers. The federal government also provides some generous subsidies for both individuals and fleet purchasers. Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992, natural gas qualifies as an alternative fuel, which gives it a certain tax status by providing EPAct credits.
Throw in those incentives, a shift in the market price to significantly favor natural gas and some long term marketing efforts by coalitions that include Sierra Club, NRDC, ExxonMobil, CleanAir.org, PowerCompare.org, Natural Gas Vehicle Association and Chesapeake Energy and you may soon see a lot more of those CNG vehicles on the road.
Of course, those who know me at all know that I have difficulty producing an energy related article without bringing up nuclear power, so here is the expected plug. In recent memory, natural gas has actually been far less expensive than it is today. In 2003, for example, an MIT study about energy futures assumed that the high price case would be $4.00 per MMBTU with about a 5% annual increase.
Using that prediction, gas should cost just $5.10 per MMBTU, not $13.92. The difference is that gas is now the “go to” electricity fuel. A little more than 20% of the electricity in the US is produced by burning natural gas - the quantity of gas consumed in power plants has increased by 30% since 2000.
When we begin building and operating new nuclear power plants, which run on abundant fuel that costs just $0.50 per MMBTU (including the waste storage fee), we will free up a lot of gas and drive down its market price. That will make room for a lot of domestically powered CNG vehicles and reduce the amount of oil that we need to import. (The reason I “shouted” the word OR in the title is that every BTU of gas can only be burned once. Every bit that burns in power plants cannot be burned in vehicle engines.)
That kind of talk makes it hard for aggressive nukes like me to build coalitions with other energy suppliers who are thoroughly enjoying their current market power, but how does it sound to you?
Photo credit - DC Metro CNG bus by Rod Adams under Creative Commons. (Taken in going home traffic on June 25, 2008)
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Hi,
CNG can be a good alternative as an intermediate solution to hydrogen power. As mentioned in http://www.grumpyoldman.be/grumpys-news-flashes-xx/ one seems to have understood this in The Netherlands. One doesn’t seem to be that far yet. There is only one car available and there aren’t any public filling stations. Thus one need to pay 4780 Euro for the filling station at home + 800 euro extra installation costs.
A cheaper alternative might be woodgas as mentioned in http://www.grumpyoldman.be/wood-you-believe-it/
I don’t believe that nuclear power plants can be useful though. Maybe they can lower the price and it’s CO2 friendly, but you’re left with much toxic waste. How much is your health and the one of your children worth for cheaper gas?
Eddy
We need CNG now. I don’t understand why our friends in Europe can buy CNG vehicles from eight or so automakers including American companies Ford and GM and we can’t in our country. Thankfully, Honda is at it again leading the pack with forward thinking CNG models. Consumers need to demand CNG as a transportation fuel in our country. It costs 50% less and emits over 65% less pollution. We have the answer in American - natural gas. It is abundant, affordable and it is pure American. We need CNG now.
Eddy:
We have been operating nuclear plants and handling the by-products for more than 50 years. Can you tell me of a single case of anyone getting hurt by exposure to those stored left overs.
In contrast, there are many studies that indicate that tens of thousands of people die early deaths every year from exposure to the routine toxic waste products that are released by all fossil fuel plants.
[...] One of my most frequently visited web sites is Bloomberg.com: Energy Prices where you can find the market prices for a number of different fuels. There you can find daily market prices (without taxes and retail mark ups) for natural gas, gasoline and distillate fuels (heating oil and diesel fuel are essentially the same composition.) Example: today, natural gas delivered to New York City gate (a trading hub) costs $13.92, the equivalent of $83.50 per barrel when converted to oil equivalent units. Diesel fuel costs $3.92 per gallon, the equivalent of $27.50 per MMBTU. Arm yourself with that info and you can see why folks in decision making positions are looking hard at CNG again… more here [...]
Ahh, for those that DONT know, before you bash America, google.
You can buy everthing from FORD to GM to Chrysler and others in the US as CNG.
A vehicle customizer buys the unit from them and converts the vehicles with factory approval and warranty intact.
One big company is in Dallas, Tx. - Take that you liberal hypocrites on the west coast.
What kind of sense does this make??? Yes, natural gas is currently less expensive than gasoline. However, what do you suppose would happen to the price of natural gas if everyone started using it to power their vehicles? Very good, children, it would begin to rise as a result of increasing demand. Then, of course, you would start to see costs increase for those who heat their homes and businesses with natural gas. Sounds a lot like what’s happening today with petroleum and it’s derivatives, doesn’t it? After a while, I suppose people would be outraged at the skyrocketing price of natural gas, and we would decide it’s a good idea to switch back to gasoline (which by this time would be dirt cheap again).
It makes no sense to chase around after the lowest-cost fossil fuel of the moment when ultimately all of them are non-renewable, polluting energy sources. Our time and effort are much better spent driving innovation in renewable, sustainable technologies. And no, Mr. Adams, nuclear fission is neither renewable nor sustainable. It may not be you or I, but at some point people are going to have to deal with that radioactive waste. Burying it in the ground for future generations to deal with is irresponsible.
@ Mr. Sinister:
Burying valuable by-products that can be used as raw material by current and future generations would be completely irresponsible.
Nuclear fission may not be “renewable”, but it is certainly sustainable for thousands of years at an increasing rate. For all I know, fission might even be renewable, but that would depend on how one defines that rather politically charged word.
You and I do agree on one point. Increasing the use of natural gas in vehicles without making changes in its consumption for electrical power would cause a rapid price increase. That would probably happen with just a slight shift because there is not much available gas capacity right now.
My analysis, however, puts the blame for that market condition squarely on the massive increases in the use of gas in the electrical power market when nuclear fission could do the job more cleanly, more safely and with far less waste.
Have you actually looked at the price trends in natural gas in the last year?
http://www.oilnergy.com/1gnymex.htm#year
Wouldn’t this cause the price of NG to go up significantly. That’s a problem if you heat your house with it. I can ride the bus to work but I really need to heat my house. It already costs a bit much.
[...] Natural Gas Can Power Vehicles OR Electric Power Plants : CleanTechnica Somebody needs to do one of these conversions. Apparently you can get kits for lots of different models of cars. [...]