Natural Gas Fuel; A Bridge To....What?

Last year T. Boone Pickens brought the concept of natural gas as a vehicle fuel into the national stream of consciousness when he launched his “Pickens Plan”. Since then the concept has evolved to the point where there are several pieces of legislation making their way through Congress (Natural Gas Act of 2009)and the Senate which will encourage the more widespread implementation of this “green” fossil fuel. Recent estimates of the natural gas reserves in the United States indicate that we have a 100 year supply which is equal to all of the oil in Saudi Arabia. Pickens and his supporters are calling natural gas a bridge fuel to a greener tomorrow but some critics seem unsure of how this could work.

In this story I will attempt to answer those doubts by building that bridge in realistic terms from readily available information. In simplest terms Pickens CNG “bridge” can extend the time we have to transition to another vehicle fuel no matter what type. In a previous story (Why The Future of Transportation Fuel Is Hydrogen)I pointed out that hydrogen fuel is the logical choice as our eventual primary fuel because, when produced from water using solar or wind energy, it is 100% non polluting and 100% renewable. In addition, in the near term, it is the one fuel which can be produced from anything domestically available that we are currently using as a fuel including fossil sources and renewables. From my perspective Pickens has created the best, most viable option for a transition to 100% clean hydrogen fuel.

Hydrogen energy has, to this point, faced a lot of obstacles because it requires a specialized storage and distribution infrastructure and, even though it can be used with our familiar, internal combustion engine powered vehicles (with the proper storage and fuel system), the cost of the infrastructure necessary combined with the fact that it is much better to use hydrogen with fuel cell vehicles in order to take advantage of its full potential and the cost of producing hydrogen have all served to keep hydrogen energy stalled at the verge of being implemented. In financial terms it is something of a chicken or egg scenario; do we build the infrastructure with no cars available or build the cars with no infrastructure or invest hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into building both simultaneously?



Pickens idea of using natural gas as the vehicle to transport us into an independent, green energy transportation future provides the only viable option from the perspectives of both economic viability and seamlessness of transition. In fact India has been quietly pursuing this same concept for at least the past 5 years or more and doing it from an angle that is not even mentioned as an option in the US.

It started when the Indian government mandated that all public vehicles in Delhi be converted to run on CNG fuel in order to cut pollution in the city. CNG fuel produces 25% less CO2 pollution than gasoline vehicles and 90% fewer other pollutants. From there the concept evolved into one where the vehicles are running on a mix of CNG and hydrogen fuel. This mixture further reduces CO2 pollution by a percentage roughly equal to the percentage of hydrogen mixed into the CNG stream. In a press release from this past January it was revealed that all of the Indian car manufacturers are now working together to develop cars for retail sale which will be optimized to run on this fuel mix.

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