A Real Case - Prospects and Analysis of Potential CNG Vehicle Implementation in China

     China is currently heavily dependent upon foreign oil imports from the Middle East in an effort to support its growing economy. The increase in natural gas serves as the ideal springboard from which compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles can gain economic viability in China. Adopting compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles in China would improve national political and environmental standing. First, increased use of compressed natural gas vehicles will lower demand for foreign petroleum. Second, compressed natural gas vehicles exude fewer pollutants than traditional petroleum based vehicles. Consequentially, CNG vehicles will decrease pollution emitted into the air, which is a strong motivator as the current air quality in China is poor, particularly in Beijing wherein pollution levels are 23 times those of New York City. Therefore, CNG vehicles will greatly contribute to the air pollution issue.

      The social costbenefit analysis takes Beijing as a case-study, and concludes that CNG implementation will result in a benefit to society in the form of decreased pollution levels, which will spell great societal savings considering the amount of vehicles present in Beijing.

     One of the results is the below chart, which indicates that CNG is significantly lower in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions than conventional gasoline (CG) or conventional diesel (CD), which are the two most popular fuels used in China.

     

     There is also a recent study on buses in Washington by the National Renewable Energy Laboratories shows further reductions of emissions from CNG vehicles as compared to diesel buses.

More information:
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/institute/bigproblems/Team3-1209.pdf

-Xiaoting Wu