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Natural Gas Vehicles

Natural gas vehicles: The most economical fuel in Germany today.

Natural gas becomes the most important Energy support within the household (Heating production). His properties are not just used to heat and to cook, but used more and more as an alternative fuel within the Motor field. Natural gas is an ecological friendly fuel sponsored in Germany on the political level by reducing the tax on oil. In opposite to petrol and diesel this exemption on tax makes the natural gas more economical i.e. ca. 50-60 Ct./Liter compared to Petrol and ca. 35-40 Ct./Liter compared to diesel.

A natural gas vehicle could fill up in Germany both available sorts of gas:

• The natural gas belonging to the group H comes from Russian and from the North Sea, the natural gas fields are in Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark. The H-gas has a share of methane that is between 87 and 99,1 Vol.% and has a heating value between 10,0 and 11,1 kWh/m³.
• L-gas has a lower methane content between 79,8 and 87 Vol.% and a heating value between ca. 8,2 and 8,9 kWh/m³. L-gas is more common in the North-Germany area.

Many car drivers confuse "CNG" vehicles (Compressed Natural Ga) and "LPG" vehicles (Liquid Petrol Gas). LPG stays on the ground by leakages, it has a lower ignition temperature and the tanks are less stable as the clearly more secure CNG. The CNG is more light-weight as the air, it volatilizes more quickly and it has a high ignition temperature about ca. 600°C.

Less emission through natural gas

The natural gas could contribute to the environmental protection:

• Reduction about 50-75% of the carbone monoxide (CO) compared to diesel and petrol
• Reduction about ca. 25% of the carbone dioxide compared to the vehicles using petrol
• Reduction about ca. 20% compared to the petrol vehicles and about 80% compared to the diesel vehicles of the hydrocarbon (THC) and the nitrogen (NOx).
• Reduction about 80% of the hydrocarbons (HC) emission ("Summer smog lowering")
• The discharge of benzol as well as soot and particles could be almost neglected.

The natural gas filling up

Steel bottles, which are placed inside (under the back seat for example) or outside of the vehicle (frequently on the roof like for deep-seated busses), are mostly used as natural gas tanks. The natural gas is stored by a pression about 200 bar. The bottle's strength is checked for a 300 bar pression, the bursting value is between 600-800 bar. It results that the tank is the most stable car's element. In the case where leakages possibly occur, the explosion danger is lower compared to the conventional vehicles. An example is given by the Frankfurt fire brigade, they use natural gas vehicles as security measure because they allow to drive closer to the fire source. This makes clear how natural gas vehicles are particularly more secure than petrol or diesel vehicles (and all the more determined compared to the LPG vehicles).

To compare the fuel and the petrol station prices the conversion of the rate of taxation of natural gas as well as the natural gas prices of petrol station (Euro/kg) in Euro/Litre has to be made through the content of energy of the fuel. The following formula are valid for both sorts of gas:

• 1 kg H-gas corresponds to ca. 1,5 litre petrol and respectively ca. 1,3 litre diesel
• 1 kg L-gas corresponds to ca. 1,2 litre petrol and respectively ca. 1,1 litre diesel

A lot of vehicles has a deep-seated bottle order so that a space limitation does no more exist. The order of the natural gas bottles could limit in some individual case the usable space volume. This could happen when the bottles are arranged behind the back seat because by folding down it does not release a large and ground level load room. Depending on the vehicle the wealth could be ca. 12 and 27 kg.

The additional costs to purchase a serial natural gas vehicle are between ca. 1.400 and 4.000 euro. The later adaptation will cost between 3.500 and 6.500 euro depending on the vehicle. Generally the subsidies programs in Germany correspond to an equivalent of 200 € until more than 2.000 €.

WiRo Consultants gives the following consultation services related to the natural gas vehicle:

• Within the framework of municipality's Energy concepts WiRo Consultants has advised for many years concepts for the use of natural gas vehicles.
• WiRo Consultants, an engineer office independent of the vehicle constructors and suppliers, has developed a customer seminar, including all the relevant topic and questions about the natural gas vehicle, for the Energy agency of North-Rhine-Westphalia.
• Several presentations/seminars and workshops has already been realized.
• Several different questions of the suppliers customers had to be answered concerning the development and the sell of the natural gas vehicle-calculator to about 25 suppliers.