Vehicular Natural Gas (VNG)
Today I am writing about GNV’s or “natural gas vehicles”. I have always had a fascination with cars and engines. When I attended Cal Poly in the 1990s, I chose natural gas vehicles as the subject of my senior project. I took my little Toyota pickup truck and converted it to run on natural gas. I was able to do the conversion myself and drove the truck until I sold it. I really enjoyed it because the fuel was cheap and it burns so much cleaner and I’ve been following the issue ever since.
About ten years ago I drove a Honda Civic that ran exclusively on natural gas and it had another great benefit. You could drive in the carpool lane. I was going to and from Irvine, so that saved me about an hour of driving per day.
What is a natural gas car?
Basically, it’s like a normal gasoline car…it has the same type of engine and when you drive it, it feels like a normal car. But… instead of running on gasoline, it runs on the same gas that comes out of your stove. You could actually install a fill pump in your house and fill it up at home! You might never need to go to the gas station. But if you don’t have the home fueling system, then you would need to find a natural gas service station near your home or work. It takes a little more planning because the last thing you want to do is run out of fuel. If it does, it has to be towed to the station.
Let me tell you 4 good reasons to drive a natural gas vehicle:
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For me, the biggest advantage of driving a CNG would be the price of fuel. That’s because I’m cheap. Right now, one gallon of gas equivalent (GGE) costs $2.44. NGVs actually require fewer oil changes and spark plugs and engine parts last longer because the gas burns cleaner. So again, if you’re cheap like me, you like low maintenance.
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They pollute much less than a gasoline car. Natural gas vehicles emit 13 to 21 percent fewer GHG emissions than comparable gasoline and diesel vehicles. If you are a fan of Al Gore then you will like them. An NGV has higher emissions than an electric car, but electric cars have lithium-ion batteries that will eventually go bad. Battery replacement is around $5000. For the most part we don’t really know how long they last. It may need to be replaced once or twice in the life of the car and we really don’t know how much of an impact it will have on landfills.
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You support the American economy. Gasoline comes from oil. USA. imports 9 billion gallons of oil a day!!! That’s about $17 billion a day. I don’t know if everyone is aware of this, but we have all the energy we need right here at home in the form of natural gas, and our vehicles will run just fine on natural gas.
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You may drive only in the carpool lane.
In conclusion
My hope is that with this short article, you will learn a little more about natural gas vehicles.
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Save money on fuel and maintenance (no batteries to worry about)
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They pollute much less: transportation accounts for 27% of our greenhouse gas emissions, so this is a good way to reduce global warming.
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It’s good for the American economy: we can be less dependent on the Middle East, and we can produce our own power for our cars.
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You can drive only in the carpool lane
For whatever reason, the United States is falling behind the rest of the world. I would love to see the US start using natural gas instead of gasoline. Maybe you can consider it now, especially when prices start to rise at the pump.