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Sunday, January 16, 2011

Fast Facts about CNG Vehicles

   Supply: 
98% of the natural gas used in the U.S. comes from North America (85% for the U.S., including 33% from new advances in shale rock formation extraction efforts). With current technology, experts predict that should have enough natural gas to last at least 100 years. This locally available natural resource can greatly reduce our reliance on foreign oil.
   Emissions:
The Honda Civic GX, a car that runs on CNG, has been recognized by the U.S. EPA as being the "cleanest commercially available, internal combustion vehicle on earth". Natural gas contains less carbon than any other fossil fuel, in fact CNG cars release 70-90% less carbon than the typical car driven today. Natural gas consists of mostly methane which is lighter than air and burns almost completely.

   Vehicles:
There are more than 11 million CNG vehicles on the road today, 110,000 of those being in the U.S.
Transit buses account for roughly 66% of all CNG vehicles. Sanitation vehicles account for 11%, and 35 airports (including PDX; http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/progs/fleet_exp_fuel.php/ETH) have CNG vehicles in their fleets accounting for 9%. Estimates foresee 50 million CNG vehicles worldwide in the next 10 years.
   Consumers:
CNG vehicles cost more than gasoline or diesel cars do, however the savings in refueling should make up the difference over time as CNG costs about $1-2 per gallon less than gasoline or diesel. Alternatively, a traditional car can also be converted to CNG.
Homes that are heated with natural gas can install a refueling kit right in their home, otherwise a refueling station will have to be found, currently there are only two in the metro Portland area. Fueling up just takes 5 minutes when you use "fast fueling".

Reference:
http://www.ngvc.org/about_us/index.html


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