Natural Gas Vehicles/Natural Gas

Concern over the automobile industry as one of the leading air pollutant have been expresses regularly leading to inquiries on development of alternative vehicle models and fuels to minimize the pollution levels. Development of alternative fuel vehicle have been on the onset of solving the environmental problems created by the vehicles using traditional petroleum fuel such as petrol or diesel fuels. Governments and international organizations concerned with rising emission levels have been encouraging the stakeholders in the automobile industry to invest in technologies of powering vehicle engines that do not solely depend on petroleum. This has led to development of electric cars, hybrid electric vehicle and solar powered vehicles. In this concept, natural gas vehicles have been identified to deliver an array of benefits to the society both economic and environmental. Apart from reducing greenhouse gas emissions, natural gas vehicles also reduce dependency on petroleum (which is non-renewable), improve regional air quality, provide a pathway to a hydrogen economy and other economic benefits such as low cost, use of domestic fuel and developing market for green jobs (Soltani-Sobh, 2016). Therefore, a natural gas vehicle/natural gas is an economically and environmentally viable vehicle fuel combination with more benefits and least economic and practical barriers to implementation.

            Development of natural gas vehicles have risen in the recent times because of increasing concerns about air quality and emissions, energy dependence, and, more recently, climate change. Unlike the petroleum fueled vehicles, natural gas vehicles are characterized by a major benefit of lower fuel cost. However, the adoption of natural vehicle in most part of the country is limited by various economic and technical factors such as their limited range and availability of the relevant infrastructure. The above barriers to adoption of natural gas vehicle have led government intaking deliberate measures to encourage their widespread usage. This include improving drilling technology which has resulted to increased production of natural gas in the United States causing a significant natural gas price reduction. For instance, a 60% reduction of natural gas prices have been achieved in the United States since 2008 (Annual Energy Outlook, 2012). This results to a major economic benefit of natural gas vehicle over petroleum fueled ones in that it reduces government expenditure on importing oil. With the increasing gasoline prices, natural gas continues to gain cost advantage over gasoline. In fact, the Energy Information Administration projects that by 2035, natural gas will be the world’s fastest growing fossil fuel (Annual Energy Outlook, 2012).

Environmental and Economic Advantages/Disadvantages

            The principal factors behind governments’ promoting the adoption of natural gas vehicles is the reduction of local air pollution. Studies have revealed that widespread adoption of natural gas vehicles would result to a significant reduction in the emission levels of reactive organic gases and non-methane gases, carbon (II) oxide, nitrogen oxides and other air toxins. It also would lead to reduced cold-start emissions, evaporation emissions, off-cycle emissions as well as running-loss emissions. Given that the air quality in most cities and urban areas is already poor, natural gas vehicles are very attractive as they would prevent further worsening of the situation. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, use of natural gas vehicles reduces carbon dioxide by up to 30% and emission of toxics by up to 90%. From the economic view point, natural gas cost is lower than gasoline or diesel by about 50%. Since natural gas burns cleaner, natural gas vehicle is able to stay in optimal shape for longer periods leading to significant lower maintenance cost, increased vehicle life span, and other aspects of life-cycle savings compared to diesel or petroleum engine powered vehicles. Tax and other incentives offered by the government on natural gas vehicles are important in offsetting the initial cost of these vehicles making them relatively affordable. Since nearly 97% of the America’s natural gas is produced in North America, adoption of natural gas vehicle in the country would imply more domestic fuel and less petroleum imports. The fueling frequencies of natural gas vehicles is high leading to large number of fueling stations and thus more employment opportunities (Annual Energy Outlook, 2012).

Despite their environmental and economic benefit such as reduced emissions and cost advantages, demand for natural gas vehicle in the transport sector is not considerable (Whyatt, 2010). Their usage is largely limited by the high initial cost of the vehicles and the inadequacy of refueling infrastructures. According to the Natural Gas Vehicle Association of America, by 2016, there were only 120,000 natural gas vehicles in the United States and approximately 15.2 million worldwide. Other technical and capacity disadvantages associated with natural gas vehicle include; less horse power resulting from lower natural gas energy density compared to gasoline, reduced vehicle range, heavy fuel tanks leading to increased vehicle weight, and increased fueling frequencies.

Steps to Implementation

            For the natural gas vehicles to compete successfully as alternative vehicle in the automobile market, various structural, economic and efficiency challenges must be overcome. To begin with, the vehicle manufactures must develop several models of these vehicle to appeal to different consumer preferences while the government on the over hand, invest on the necessary infrastructure. The natural gas automakers ought to produce car designs with reduced costs especially for the hydrogen storage in order to compete with other conventional vehicles. The role of government in ensuring hydrogen is available to consumers is vital in the implementation process of the natural gas vehicles. This call for developing the appropriate infrastructure to ensure efficient production and delivery of natural gas to the immediate users. In 2013, the government launched a public-private partnership between the federal agencies, automakers, academic institutions and other stakeholders in a quest to identify cost effective approaches of developing efficient natural gas infrastructure, mostly hydrogen. The final consideration towards successful adoption of natural gas vehicles involve public awareness. Just like the case with any new technology, consumers are always concerned about the safety and dependability of the natural gas vehicle as well as the new fuel. This might slow the implementation process, unless the automakers together with the government invest in public education to encourage the consumers to embrace the new technology by creating the relevant awareness on its economic and environmental impact to the country.

Solutions to Problems in Implementation

            The major barrier to adoption of natural gas vehicles have to do with their initial cost. According to Moniz (2011), the main prohibitive factor towards successful usage of natural gas vehicles is the high vehicle purchase price. The prices are influenced by the lower manufacturing volume which in turn is caused by the market uncertainty. Lack of enough information in the market regarding the potential cost saving characteristics of these vehicle to the consumers can be attributed to the market uncertainty. A combination of government subsidies to the buyers and consumer education on the benefits of these vehicle would serve to address the problem of initial cost. the consumers will be willing to spend more on the purchase price if they are promised future savings on fuel and maintenance costs. Under this circumstance, the fuel and maintenance costs savings must be sufficient enough to compensate for the higher initial cost. Efforts to increase demand for these vehicles would enable the automakers manufacture the vehicles in higher volumes thus enjoy economies of scale and possibly reduce the unit production cost.

            The second problem on implementation deals with the limited refueling infrastructure. Here, the various stakeholders should coordinate research to come up with the most viable and effective solution of deploying natural gas to the users without adding more costs (Whyatt, 2010). Otherwise, the petroleum fueled vehicle will continue to dominate given the widespread refueling infrastructure that already exist. The government should encourage private investment in the sector by providing subsidies and other incentives to promote fast growth of these infrastructure.

            In conclusion, the adoption of natural gas vehicles using natural gas such as hydrogen for fuel can be considered to offer the most economical and environmental benefits since they emit less and have lower fuel and maintenance cost (Moniz, 2011). The main challenges facing their adoption include the higher up-front vehicle cost and limited fueling infrastructure. These problems can however, be addressed through government subsidies and incentives, and public-private partnership investment in natural gas delivery infrastructure. The implementation process of this vehicle fuel combination is faced by less barriers thus economically and environmentally viable.

References

Soltani-Sobh, A. et al. (2016). Compressed Natural Gas Vehicles: Financially Viable Option? Transportation Research Record. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2281&context=appecon_facpub.

Moniz, E. (2011). The Future of Natural Gas: An Interdisciplinary MIT Study. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.

Whyatt, G. (2010). Issues Affecting Adoption of Natural Gas Fuel in Light and Heavy-Duty Vehicles. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland.

Annual Energy Outlook (2012). U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy: Projections to 2035.