Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Natural gas vehicle
Summary
A Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV) is an alternative fuel vehicle that uses compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG). Natural gas vehicles should not be confused with autogas vehicles powered by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), mainly propane, a fuel with a fundamentally different composition.
In a natural-gas-powered vehicle, energy is released by the combustion of methane gas (MethaneCH4) fuel with oxygen (OxygenO2) from the air to form carbon dioxide (Carbon dioxideCO2) and water vapor (WaterH2O) in an internal combustion engine. Methane is the cleanest burning hydrocarbon, and many contaminants present in natural gas are removed at the source. Existing gasoline-powered vehicles may be converted to CNG or LNG and can be dedicated (running only on natural gas) or bi-fuel (running on gasoline or natural gas). Diesel engines for heavy trucks and buses can also be converted. They can be dedicated with the addition of new heads containing spark ignition systems or can be run on a blend of diesel and natural gas, with the primary fuel being natural gas and a small amount of diesel fuel being used as an ignition source. It is also possible to generate energy in a small gas turbine and couple the gas engine or turbine with a small electric battery to create a hybrid electric motor-driven vehicle.
Convenient fuel storage and refueling is a key challenge compared to petrol and diesel vehicles because natural gas is pressurized and liquefied (in the case of LNG). The lower energy density of gases compared to liquid fuels is mitigated dramatically by high compression or gas liquefaction but requires a trade-off in terms of the size, complexity, or weight of the storage container and the range of the vehicle. Although similar storage technologies may be used and similar compromises would apply to a hydrogen vehicle as part of a proposed new hydrogen economy, methane as a gaseous fuel is safer than hydrogen due to its lower flammability, low corrosivity, and better leak tightness due to its larger molecular weight, resulting in lower price hardware solutions.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.