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ronwagn

European CNG Auto Growth

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Well, Here in Argentina we use natural gas powered cars since the 80's the main reason is because while in most of the world Natural Gas is a by-Product of oil extraction in Argentina oil is a byproduct of gas, therefore supply and demand, and therefore running your car on gas costs 1/3 than running it on gasoline.

in fact Argentina is such a "gassy place", that the "Tierra del Fuego" province (which means "Fireland" in english) is called like that when the Spanish discovered the place they saw the natives out there burning the gas deposits, possibly the oldest gas-flaring or the oldest gas producing place.

But there are inconvenients of running on natural gas, first and all your engine is going to overheat more often, Methane and Ethane needs higher temperature to combust, and it needs a 50% more air to burn, you car's engine heats up mostly because is compressing the air, half of the work of the piston internal combustion engine is compressing the air, your car is also going to loose some power because you need you need more air to produce the same power.

Methanol and Ethanol are great racing fuels because they need much less air to combust, so you can use more fuel with the same air, and because they are liquid they cool down the combustion mixture when they evaporate, that allows you to run higher compression ratio and higher spark timing, which gives you more power. However they are awful everyday fuels because they have lower energy density than gasoline

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(edited)

11 hours ago, Sebastian Meana said:

Well, Here in Argentina we use natural gas powered cars since the 80's the main reason is because while in most of the world Natural Gas is a by-Product of oil extraction in Argentina oil is a byproduct of gas, therefore supply and demand, and therefore running your car on gas costs 1/3 than running it on gasoline.

in fact Argentina is such a "gassy place", that the "Tierra del Fuego" province (which means "Fireland" in english) is called like that when the Spanish discovered the place they saw the natives out there burning the gas deposits, possibly the oldest gas-flaring or the oldest gas producing place.

But there are inconvenients of running on natural gas, first and all your engine is going to overheat more often, Methane and Ethane needs higher temperature to combust, and it needs a 50% more air to burn, you car's engine heats up mostly because is compressing the air, half of the work of the piston internal combustion engine is compressing the air, your car is also going to loose some power because you need you need more air to produce the same power.

Methanol and Ethanol are great racing fuels because they need much less air to combust, so you can use more fuel with the same air, and because they are liquid they cool down the combustion mixture when they evaporate, that allows you to run higher compression ratio and higher spark timing, which gives you more power. However they are awful everyday fuels because they have lower energy density than gasoline

Are you talking about vehicles that were initially gasoline and then converted? I have never heard of the heat complaint before and have researched natural gas vehicles for years. 

None of the vehicles I have owned in the last few decades heat up very much at all, and could easily handle more heat. An oil cooler is one easy fix for problems like that, I would think. 

Edited by ronwagn

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But there are inconvenients of running on natural gas, first and all your engine is going to overheat more often, Methane and Ethane needs higher temperature to combust, and it needs a 50% more air to burn, you car's engine heats up mostly because is compressing the air, half of the work of the piston internal combustion engine is compressing the air, your car is also going to loose some power because you need you need more air to produce the same power.

Where did you get your information on internal combustion engines? 

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