Archive for the 'Alternate Fuel Vehicles' Category

The Start of Natural Gas Fueled Cars

Since the 1930’s natural gas has been available for use as an alternate fuel source for vehicles. But just how did this use for natural gas come into fruition? Usually when you look at the history of cars, their development and production years it is clear cut and solidly dated. When it comes to Natural Gas fueled cars it isn’t the case. Finding a solid history of how Natural Gas came to be used as a fuel for vehicles is difficult.

The thought of using natural gas as fuel came to forethought at the start of the century but was put on the back burner when large crude oil fields were discovered under the United States and the Middle East. The oil was immediately available and gained immediate popularity as a fuel source. Despite this, there were people experimenting with the fact that there could be other fuel sources out there as well. If you go back to the 1930’s there were natural gas vehicles running, and some that used manufactured gas as well.

In the United States slowly embraced natural gas as an alternative fuel over the years, while in European countries it was more readily utilized and developed. It wasn’t until the United States developed a fuel shortage in the 1960’s and early 1970’s that US car manufacturers started looking seriously at creating NGV vehicles for commercial and private use. Over the years the need to invest in this alternate fuel source has become even more apparent and resulted in the availability of vehicles run solely on CNG, conversion kits to convert cars from diesel to CNG and the embrace of government to help push the development of this technology to the forefront. CNG now has a solid history of usage behind it and a strong foothold to push us to be more environmentally sound and leave us with more change in our pockets at the end of the day considering rising gasoline costs all around. Get on the CNG wave today!

The A, B, C’s of Natural Gas: A CNG Glossary

Every industry you can think of has a laundry list of vocabulary to go along with it. Working in the natural gas industry this vocabulary tends to become second nature to companies such as ourselves. It is important to us that you understand the important vocabulary associated with natural gas and Natural Gas Vehicles(NGV) as well.

BTU

British thermal unit. The amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one Fahrenheit degree. One BTU is equivalent to 252 calories, 0.293 watt-hours or 1,055 joules.

Christmas tree

The arrangement of pipes and valves at the wellhead to control the flow of oil or natural gas and to prevent blowouts.

CNG

Compressed natural gas.

Completion

The procedure by which a successful well is readied for production.

Compressor station

Stations located along natural gas pipelines which recompress gas to ensure an even flow.

Conventional resource

Any area where natural gas can be drilled and extracted vertically.

Cubic foot

The amount of natural gas required at room temperature at sea level to fill a volume of one cubic foot.

Derrick/drilling rig

A steel structure mounted over the borehole to support drill pipe and other equipment that is lowered and raised during drilling operations.

Directional drilling

A technique that enables drilling at an angle to reach a particular underground formation.

Flaring

The controlled and safe burning of gas which cannot be used for commercial or technical reasons.

Gas processing plant

A facility that extracts liquefiable hydrocarbons or sulfur from natural gas.

Gathering lines

Pipelines that move natural gas or petroleum from wells to processing or transmission facilities.

GGE

Gasoline gallon equivalent.

GTL

Gas to liquids. Processes that convert natural gas into other forms of fuel.

Horizontal drilling

An advanced form of directional drilling in which the lateral hole is drilled horizontally.

Hydraulic fracturing

The pumping of a medium, typically water, sand and chemical additives, into a reservoir with a controlled force to fracture reservoir rock, resulting in a greater flow of natural gas or oil from the reservoir. Learn more at hydraulicfracturing.com.

Landman

The individual in an oil and gas company or agent who negotiates oil and gas leases with mineral owners, cures title defects and negotiates with other companies on agreements concerning the lease.

LNG

Liquefied natural gas. Natural gas that has been cooled into a liquid state so that it takes up only 1/600 of the volume of natural gas.

LPG

Liquefied petroleum gas. Propane, butane or propane-butane mixtures derived from crude oil refining or natural gas fractionation. For convenience of transportation, these gases are liquefied through pressurization.

Mineral interest

An ownership of the minerals beneath a tract of land. If the surface ownership and the mineral ownership are different, the minerals are said to be “severed.”

Natural gas

A naturally occurring mixture of hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon gases found in porous rock formations. Its principal component is methane.

NGL

Natural gas liquids. A general term for liquid products separated from natural gas in a gas processing plant. These include propane, butane, ethane and natural gasoline.

NGV

Natural gas vehicle.

Pipeline

A string of interconnected pipe providing a route for natural gas to travel from the wellhead to market. Without pipelines, natural gas cannot be transported and sold at market to provide royalty payments, clean energy and economic benefits to the community.

Plug

A permanent plug, usually cement, set in a borehole to block the flow of fluids, to isolate sections of the well or to permanently plug a dry hole or depleted well.

Processing

The separation of oil, gas and natural gas liquids and the removal of impurities.

Reservoir

Porous, permeable rock containing oil and natural gas; enclosed or surrounded by layers of less permeable or impervious rock.

Royalty

The share of production or proceeds reserved to a mineral owner under the terms of a mineral lease. Normally, royalty interests are free of all costs of production except production taxes and transportation costs. It is established in the lease by reserving a royalty which is usually expressed as a fraction of production.

Seismic

A tool for identifying underground accumulations of oil or natural gas by sending and measuring the return of energy or sound waves. It is a computer-assisted process that maps sedimentary structures to assist in planning drilling programs.

Shales

Gas reserves found in unusually nonporous rock, requiring special drilling and completion techniques.

Spud

The commencement of drilling operations.

Tank battery

Tank batteries are part of the production equipment installed after a well is completed. They store the salt water that is returned from a producing well.

Wellhead

The control equipment fitted to the top of the well, consisting of outlets, valves, blowout-prevention equipment, etc.

Unconventional resource

Any area (shales, tight sands, fractured carbonates) where natural gas cannot be drilled and extracted vertically.

 

CNG Fleets

The number of CNG based fleets are expanding on a daily basis. An example of this is the Charlotte, NC solid waste department announcement that they will be adding four trucks fueled by compressed natural gas to it refuse fleet. This is just one of the many fleet stories that are in the news around us. As a fleet owner it is important to understand the benefits and have knowledge of the resources out there to help you in your decision to go the route of CNG. Maintaining your CNG fleet is another priority that must not neglected if already in use. The following are some useful industry resources for the fleet owner to know about.

 

The Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV) Fleet Forum

“It is a member-based and directed organization dedicated to advancing the use of domestic, clean and low-cost natural gas within the transportation sector. The NGV Fleet Forum provides a venue for fleet operators from across the nation to share technical expertise and experiences, collaborate in a peer-to-peer environment, and support other members in the successful deployment of natural gas vehicles throughout North America.” http://www.ngvfleetforum.com/about.html

 

Natural Gas Vehicles for America (NGVAmerica)

“It is a national organization dedicated to the development of a growing, sustainable and profitable market for vehicles powered by natural gas or hydrogen. NGVAmerica represents more than 100 companies interested in the promotion and use of natural gas and hydrogen as transportation fuels, including: engine, vehicle and equipment manufacturers; fleet operators and service providers; natural gas companies; natural gas producers; and environmental groups and government organizations.” http://www.ngvc.org/about_us/index.html

 

The Natural Gas Toolkit
“This toolkit was built with one purpose in mind: help fleets perform a first-cut cost analysis of transitioning part of their fleet to using compressed natural gas, or CNG. The toolkit was developed as an outgrowth to CNG bus conversions that the Virginia Clean Cities was developing; the project was funded by DOE…. Allows you to find and utilize two primary numbers, the fuel price difference and your vehicle cost difference, to calculate a simple payback period. Perhaps more importantly, it helps you get basic pieces of information in one place to prepare for potential funding opportunities in the future.” http://eerc.ra.utk.edu/etcfc/ngtoolkit/index.html

CVS in the News: US has large reserves of natural gas, especially in the Gulf of Mexico.

Mike Misseri and Clean Vehicle Solutions were featured  in the news this week, speaking about the popularity of CNG vehicles on CBS-NY news.

Here’s an excerpt from the story:

With gasoline prices continuing to rise, many are looking at alternatives like hybrids or electric cars. But there’s a third fuel option rapidly gaining in popularity.

The benefits of CNG vehicles are much cheaper fuel that causes less damage to the engine, which lowers maintenance costs, extremely low emissions, and a variety of proposed and existing tax credits.

The cons: the CNG Honda costs about $5,000 more than the regular one, filling stations are hard to find (there are only about a dozen in the New York area), you won’t get quite the range as a gasoline car (between 200 and 250 miles), and the compressed gas tank takes up part of the trunk space.

Right now, CNG cars have to use a special fueling station that fleets use, but as their popularity increases, natural gas pumps will start to appear at gasoline stations and convenience stores.

If you don’t live close to a refueling station, you can have a fueling station put in your home, if you have natural gas going into your house.

But whereas filling your car at a station takes a few minutes, using a home system takes about eight hours, because the gas is a lot less pressurized.

More and more companies and governments are converting their fleets to natural gas. The fuel savings for converting a school bus will pay for the $50,000 conversion within 18 months.

Converting your car is probably still too expensive to make sense, about $15,000, but Michael Misseri of Clean Vehicle Solutions in East Brunswick, N.J., said that will change when demand increases.

“Once enough stations are up then just anybody can go out and have their car converted,” Misseri said.

So in the short term, it may make more sense to look at the CNG cars rolling out over the next few years that are already running on the all-American fuel.

Read the full story here

 

The Natural Gas Station Network

With the expanded offerings of new CNG vehicles and the affordable cost of converting older vehicles to CNG the expansion of the Natural Gas Station Network needs to grow as well. Action comes with demand, and the demand for more fuel efficient vehicles is at the forefront of thought when it comes to transportation, especially with the rising cost of gasoline. The call for more stations is not a new one. In fact, back in 2003 the US Department of energy put out a guide with tips, lessons and best practices to own and run an Alternative Fuel Station to encourage the expansion of  CNG vehicle usage growth. If you would like to see the publication you can visit http://www1.eere.energy.gov/cleancities/pdfs/afn7_1.pdf

 

Honda Motor Co. (7267) has been the only automaker selling compressed natural gas-powered cars to U.S. drivers and has recently pushed to have have its dealers also install pumps to sell the fuel as its seeks to double sales of CNG vehicles. The main target for their activities on this front right now is California, and they would like to see pumps at two or more Honda dealerships this year. Honda’s U.S. headquarters in Torrance, California released a statement saying, “If the dealer had a fueling station, it would really reduce some of that concern for the customer,” Center said at “It’s not our place to create infrastructure, but it’s a chicken-and-egg situation and we’re going to have to nurse that egg along.”  Very wise words from the company that has been a forward thinker in the CNG vehicle industry.

 

As we have come into the new year there has also been an influx of new and EPA approved conversion kits and vehicle options from a number of companies that already are or will soon be available on the market in addition to the Honda Motor Co. option. That fact combined with CNGnow.com statement that “more than half of the CNG fueling stations in the U.S. are available for public use; others are for fleet vehicles only” tell us it is time to make some further investments in our more cost and environmentally friendly future that could be ahead. Encourage local and state efforts to expand the Natural Gas Station network for public use today, encourage local fleet operators to support the efforts and help invest in our future tomorrow.