Although compressed natural gas has not caught on quickly as an alternative fuel source for automobiles in the United States, it will likely soon gain momentum because of soaring gasoline prices.
At a meeting of the Chino Valley Town Council July 10, resident Jim French told council members about the environmental and cost-saving benefits of compressed natural gas and encouraged them to consider buying CNG-equipped town vehicles in the future.
Essentially, drivers can burn compressed natural gas as a substitute for gasoline, diesel or propane fuel. CNG is cleaner than carbon-emitting gasoline and safer than other motor fuels if spilled. Natural gas is lighter than air, meaning it disperses quickly when leaked or spilled.
Chemists make the fuel by compressing natural gas - which is mostly composed of methane - to less than 1 percent of its volume at standard atmospheric pressure.
They then store and distribute the gas in hard cylindrical/spherical containers made of steel, aluminum, plastic, or a lightweight composite - one that helps lower fuel consumption in cars.
"It's a wonderful fuel," French said. "It's like propane, except that when you compress propane, it boils. Natural gas does not do that."
With the U.S. holding onto an estimated 700 to 800 million barrels of oil in its Strategic Petroleum Reserve - a resource the government does not plan to tap - it is logical to believe gasoline prices will not go down substantially anytime soon.
This past week, the American Automobile Association, Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express reported that retail gas prices dropped by more than a penny to $4.05 per gallon.
But a gallon of gas still costs 80 cents, or 30 percent, more than it did a year ago.
The gallon of gasoline equivalent, or GGE, for natural gas is $2.29, but if the Town of Chino Valley compressed its own gas, for example, it could reduce the price to $1 per GGE, he added.
One major obstacle for the U.S. in this market is that the nation currently has just 142,000 natural gas-fueled vehicles. And the lone currently produced CNG vehicle in the U.S. is the Honda Civic GX sedan, which is manufactured in limited numbers and available only in a few states.
On July 10, Chino Valley Vice Mayor Joel Baker said incorporating CNG vehicles into the town's fleet is "a fantastic idea," but the lackluster economy and Chino Valley's budget problems will make movement on this difficult.
Reader Comments
Posted: Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Article comment by:
Jon
This is already happening up here in UT. Compressed natural gas (CNG) was $.64/gge (gasoline gallon equivalent). Now it's $0.87/gge with one more increase to come (it will still be dirt cheap compared to gasoline). Needless to say people have been purchasing CNG vehicles like crazy up here. The cost of the vehicles has increased so much that it might not even be worth purchasing if you haven't already purchased one. Utah has a state incentive plan to get people to purchase the vehicles (like AZ had but luckily it was a little better contrived and people aren't doing it to rip the gov't a new one like people did in AZ which caused the whole AZ natural gas program to be tossed out the window, unfortunately). The U.S. gov't also has a tax credit for alternative fuel, if you use an alternative fuel like CNG they will give you $0.50 off per GGE. Pretty nice, wish everyone could do it. CA has quite a bit too. UT has quite a few stations and they continue to build more so there's not a lack of fuel stations.
