Is a CNG Car in Your Future?

Compressed Natural Gas or CNG for short is becoming a viable option for people in search of lower their cost of transportation and providing a clean alternative to the pollution from gasoline engines. CNG vehicles have been around for a while. Many trucks and buses throughout the world run on CNG.

The problem for the everyday consumer is where do I get CNG to refill my vehicle. Great news regarding this has been made. For homes with who have natural gas, there are conversion kits to allow for home refueling safely. In California and Arizona, CNG refilling stations are becoming more available so that when you are away from home you can fill up.

CNG conversion kits for cars are an inexpensive way to convert your gasoline engine to run on CNG. Some car manufacturers such as Honda already have a Civic that runs on CNG without going through the conversion. It was specifically designed to burn CNG from the factory. CNG cars kits not only convert gasoline engines to run on compress gas but still have the capability to run on gasoline as well.

Even though the heating value of CNG (also known as its energy content) is significantly lower than that of gasoline, compressed natural gas has excellent octane properties. Using high compression rates ratios in CNG cars as it sole fuel source improves the combustion efficiency.

CNG car kits are required to be certified by the EPA. So if you are looking for an aftermarket kit, make sure you read the labels that the kits have met the stringent EPA testing to be certified. Remember, compressed gas is combustible which is why you want your gas tanks, lines and delivery system to meet these standards. If your kit has been certified by the EPA, then you should be able to use CNG safely.

You may find this interesting. CNG refueling requires the transfers of natural gas to be under pressure which means it can be set up as either slow-fill or fast-fill. Just what does that mean? Slow-fill is pretty cool because you can drive it into your garage and provided you have setup correctly, you can refill your car there. Slow-fill generally uses overnight refueling and uses less costly refueling station equipment than fast-fill. Fast-fill refueling time (normally a service station) is only slightly longer than than when you use gasoline to fill up your tank.

Lots of research is under way to improve the use and mixture of CNG. Presently, CNG vehicles apparently are designed to run on an expansive range of methane content. Consider that in the near future manufacturers may design vehicles that can support detailed higher methane contents. If this happens, it opens up a whole new way for producers and marketers of CNG to have the flexibility to develop and blend fuels suitable for those specifications. You could even produce methane for a location and climate. This would give retailers the flexibility to fine-tune fuel dispenser labels accordingly, depending upon the time of the year.

Is a CNG vehicle or CNG car conversion kit in your future? The current price of gasoline even though the world price of oil is beginning to recede, is still a viable option to those current high prices. The clean burning of CNG in areas where auto pollutants are a problem makes CNG a reasonable alternative.