605


Topic 605	Natural Gas In Cars	7 responses
igc:afrey	en.energy	 8:44 pm  Oct  2, 1990

The following column appeared in The New York Times 10/2/90:

Natural Gas in Cars -- And Step On It
By Patrick L. McGeer and Enoch J. Durbin
Princeton, N.J.

Imagine a single action that could end the West's dependence on 
Middle East oil, shatter OPEC and drive oil prices below $10 a barrel.  
A daydream?  No, all that is required is to equip all the cars and 
trucks on the road today to run on natural gas.

To a great extent, this is what British Columbia did after the last oil 
crisis, in 1979.  Subsidies were introduced to encourage owners of 
fleets and private cars to add special tanks so that their cars could -- 
at the flip of a dashboard switch -- burn either gasoline or natural 
gas.  Service stations were given inducements to add natural gas to 
the pumping bays.

Now, a network of 50 refueling stations serves fleet vehicles and 
individual owners.  Owners of converted automobiles seldom use 
gasoline except as a reserve.

Natural gas has a high octane rating (1300 and costs 50 to 80 cents 
per gallon equivalent.  It is also plentiful, clean and easily 
distributed, and is much safer than gasoline (there has never been a 
fire in a natural-gas vehicle).  Compared with gasoline, it produces 
lower levels of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide and enormously 
lower levels of smog-causing hydrocarbons.

Standard gasoline engines can run on natural gas without 
modification.  The gaseous fuel prolongs the life of engines, spark 
plugs and lubricating oil.  As a result, 500,000-mile engine life is not 
atypical.

Technically, converting vehicles from gasoline to natural gas is easy.  
Judging from British Columbia's experience, the process should take 
about two years.  For roughly the cost of our current military 
operations in the Middle East, we could convert about a million 
vehicles a month.

And the advantages of using natural gas go far beyond the economic 
realm.  It would end a monumental waste of resources, provide the 
single largest environmental dividend of all time and give us energy 
security.

When oil is pumped, dissolved natural gas is burned off, vented or 
reinjected into the ground.  The burning of "excess" natural gas is a 
major contributor of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which is thought to 
contribute to global warming.  The Soviet Union alone flares off gas 
equivalent to a hundred million barrels of oil each year.

Known  reserves of natural gas far exceed those of oil.  Canada's are 
sufficient to serve North America's needs past the middle of the next 
century.  Unlike oil, natural gas is a renewable resource.  Nature 
makes it from rotting vegetation.  Biomass is therefore a huge and 
renewable source of supply.  In fact, we could supply all our current 
needs simply from the gas produce by rotting vegetation and 
garbage dumps.

Coal is yet another vast source of gas.  But there is not need even to 
think about these potential sources because so much is either being 
wasted or just sitting in known underground fields.

With all this going for it, why hasn't natural gas supplanted gasoline?  
For one thing, natural-gas tanks hold less fuel, limiting the range for 
most cars to about two-thirds that of a full tank of gasoline.  This 
means more frequent fill-ups, and the necessity to be near a 
refueling station.  For vehicle fleets that return to their home base 
each day (buses, taxis, city delivery vehicles) this isn't a problem.  
They can refuel in their own garages.

But the principal barrier to complete conversion is the large onetime 
expense of around $1,500, which can be recovered through lower 
fuel and maintenance costs.  Taxi cabs, which pile up the mileage, 
save about $2,000 a year in fuel costs, enough for fleet owners to 
recover the cost of conversions and refueling stations in less than one 
year.

However, few private cars are driven far enough to make 
conversions economically practical.  A vehicle has to consume 1,500 
to 2,000 gallons a year or more to make the investment pay.  
Moreover, many people assume that natural-gas prices would rise -- 
either from higher demand or tax hikes -- if cars were converted in 
significant numbers.

The expense of conversion, doubts about price and spotty availability 
are enough to frighten off all but the hardiest souls.  Overcoming this 
understandable but self-defeating gridlock requires Government 
action.

The place to start is with urban fleets.  Natural gas is such a bargain 
for them that subsidies should not be needed.  Indeed, major 
delivery companies, like Federal Express and United Parcel Service, 
have already begun converting on their own.

The Government could accelerate the process by requiring all urban 
fleet owners to operate some fraction of their vehicles on natural gas 
by a certain date.  Fleet owners who could demonstrate that they 
would be economically harmed by such operation could be excused.  
Texas recently passed a law with both provisions that should serve 
as a model for the nation.

Once most of the nation's fleets are using natural gas, private fueling 
stations will have more of an incentive to sell the fuel.  (In fact, 
many fleet owners in British Columbia found that they could make a 
good business of selling natural gas to the public.)  When consumers 
see that natural gas is readily available, they may consider 
converting.

superb fuel that we should use irrespective of 
instability in the Middle East.

Energy dependence is one of the few national problems that we can 
solve.  Let's do it.

Patrick L. McGeer is a former Minister of Science in British Columbia.  
Enoch J. Durbin is professor of Mechanical and aerospace engineering 
at Princeton University.

Conf?