Worldwide Fuel Prices

[Markham]

 

 

Many cars in Europe use LNG and gas, and it is a great system. Long range with two tanks (gas for backup) whie the LNG is much cheaper and cleaner burning.

Umm, not quite, Don! I have such a vehicle back in Wales, a Mitsubishi Outlander, part of a shipment Mitsubishi UK had converted to run on dual fuel - unleaded and LPG. LPG is basically Propane whilst LNG is basically Butane - the same gas as in your Bic lighter. Mitusbishi sold these cars at the same price as the single fuelled version but did not pass-on the rather high conversion cost (around £5,000 per vehicle) as that was paid for by a government grant.

 

Yes, I was crossing up LPG with LNG.

 

I believe in the US we have a lot of LPG (propane) filling stations but the LNG are more scarce for the general public, and that is what they hope to expand.  LNG has been somewhat limited to city buses and other fleets.  Is LNG cleaner burning than LPG?

 

I know quite a few people in Netherlands and Germany who have the dual system LPG/Gas and they love it.  You will see the Germans lined up at the autobahn LPG pumps while there is no wait at the gas pump.

 

Unless the conversion is done correctly, running on LPG can be more costly than running on petroleum. The Welsh company Mitsubishi UK contracted are acknowledged leaders in this field and has designed a range of conversion kits for a number of makes and models - there is no 'one size fits all'. The kit includes a computer and this always feeds petroleum to the engine when the car is first started. As the engine warms-up, the computer begins a transition from petroleum to gas which requires constant tweaking of the carburation and the transition normally takes three to four minutes; if the engine is already hot when re-started, that transition occurs more quickly.

 

However LPG is a less efficient fuel: using petroleum alone, my car would do around 29-30 miles to the gallon whereas LPG reduces that to around 22-24 mpg. But I didn't suffer any loss of acceleration or power which is often the case with LPG-powered vehicles -- and LPG taxis over here especially. The downsides for me were the time it took to refuel (around 5 minutes to pump 66 litres, the maximum my 80 litre tank accepted) and the fact that there were only two filling stations selling LPG within 70 miles of my home - one being 70 miles away, the other about 12 miles distant.

 

A properly converted dual-fuelled vehicle is definitely "greener" than its single-fuelled counterparts even when petroleum is being used. This always surprised the emissions tester because the results from my car were somewhat better than the manufacturer's stated levels.

 

LNG is not used as road fuel in the UK, as far as I know, which I believe requires an even costlier conversion to be fitted; bio-diesel is now the preferred fuel of Britain's bus fleets.

[Dave Hounddriver]

bio-diesel is now the preferred fuel of Britain's bus fleets.

 

Lets see, just a little ways behind Canada?   :1st:   I suspect you will find hydrogen fuel cells on city buses in the future.

 

In 1993, the world’s first fuel cell bus was unveiled. The 32 foot shuttle bus, which could carry up to 20 people, demonstrated the critical role fuel cells would play in the future of public transit. Between 1999 and 2001, six full-size transit buses operated in revenue service with the Chicago Transit Authority and BC Transit in British Columbia. The six buses travelled more than 73,000 miles and carried in excess of 200,000 passengers.

http://www.chfca.ca/the-sector/sector-milestones/