Is Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) a viable alternative to gasoline?

Question

I notice that there are fleet vehicles equipped to run on CNG. They have their own filling stations and purchase the product from the local utility. Given the huge reserves of natural gas in the United States and Canada, it would seem this might be a suitable option to ever-increasing gasoline prices.

I need to know if CNG gives comparable mileage and what the estimated cost per gallon would be.

Answer 1

cng is a viable alternative to gasoline, as is lpg, lng, methane. the problem with these gases are the fuel tanks. they are heavy and require inspection every 5 years, same as welding tanks. another issue is the lack of infrastructure to support use by a large number of vehicles. many government agencies use cng in their fleets, mostly in service trucks and local buses.

Answer 2

Natural gas has some very good qualities, like very high octane, and some not so good qualities, like low fuel mileage. The mileage goes up if you can run LNG or Liquefied Natural Gas. It is easier to confine when it is a liquid too. Unfortunately, the cost of keeping NG cooled and compressed negates all of the advantages.

"The driving range of a Honda Civic compressed natural gas (CNG) dedicated (CNG only) sedan with a full tank filled at 3,600 psi is 200 - 225 miles of freeway driving or 34 mpg.  The city/highway mileage is 30/34.  Most CNG stations fill at 3,600 psi (fuel-fill pressure) but if the vehicle is filled at 3,000 psi the range will decrease proportionately.  You can determine if the vehicle is filled at a lower psi, or not completely full, if the fuel gage points to the lower full mark (the gage has 2 full marks).  When the low fuel indicator turns on the driver will have at least 30 miles of fuel left."



The Chevy Cavalier bi-fuel sedan (CNG and gasoline) CNG sedan has 120 mile range at 3600 psi on the freeway from the CNG tank with an additional 350 miles on the gasoline tank."

A gas powered Honda can get 42 MPG. but NG is much cheaper, for now, than gasoline.

Answer 3

It is being used in India to combat pollution.

All buses are compulsorly using it. Special stations are set up for it.

Some cars use it too. Specially taxis. It is viable.

Answer 4

No, it's not for similar reasons to why hydrogen isn't a viable alternative:

http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/hydrog...

Right now Honda offers a natural gas version of the Civic, but it's rather unimpressive.  It costs more than a Prius and Civic hybrid, has roughly the same environmental impact, can only be refueled at home, and the refueling equipment has to be leased from Honda for an additional cost.

http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center-fuel...

Natural gas cars just have too many disadvantages as compared to hybrids and electric vehicles.

http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/electr...

Answer 5

For a small amount of cars it is viable, but when you talk about masses of cars like the entire amount of cars that now run on gasoline it definitely is not viable.

There are cars that run on natural gas and that will even run on natural gas and gasoline.  There are systems that can be installed where you can fuel a natural gas car up with natural gas from your natural gas line at your house.  Yes, it is cheaper.  But if everybody went to natural gas the supply of natural gas would not be enough to support the amount of vehicles that currently run on gasoline and diesel.  Secondly, natural gas would be hard to transport for large masses because it is a gas.  It would have to be cool to its liquid state if it was ever to be shipped in from overseas and that would be very expensive.

So if it is used on a small percentage of the cars it is viable.  If you want to replace all of the gasoline cars with it, then it is not viable and it would make several things go up such as the cost of heating your house and the cost of food go up.  The nitrogen farmers use for fertilizer is derived from a process that gathers the nitrogen from natural gas.  Using more natural gas would make fertilizer prices go up and thus food prices would go up.  Electricity prices would also see a slight jump because natural gas is used to power back up generators for many electric companies when electrical grids see peaks in electrical use.  Electric generators powered by natural gas usually add the extra electricity to help sustain the power grid during those peak periods.

Another problem with compressed natural gas is that there are very few fueling stations.  So if you want to take a trip across the country then you can forget it.

Answer 6

Look out ...  you'll get those Big Oil Lobbyists crawling all

over your front lawn and not looking for Natural Gas either!   They do not want this to happen!