The Cleanest Cars on Earth?: Honda Civic GX and Other Natural Gas Vehicles (NGVs)
It’s fairly obvious why densely populated states would be interested, especially since natural gas is a readily available source of heating fuel for many parts of the country. Most importantly, the Civic is the Eagle Scout of emissions certifications: it qualified for the California Air Resources Board’s Advanced Technology Partial Zero-Emission Vehicle (AT-PZEV) status, which means that it’s a Super-Ultra-Low-Emission Vehicle (SULEV) with zero-evaporative emissions. To qualify for AT-PZEV, the Civic must also carry a 15-year/150,000-mile warranty on emissions equipment. It also meets EPA’s strict Tier-2, Bin-2 and ILEV certification.
Despite getting the equivalent of a good but not quite amazing 36 MPG highway/24 MPG city, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) awarded the Civic the green ribbon as the greenest vehicle of 2008. That’s the fifth consecutive year it’s taken the top prize.
So what’s the downside?
Drawbacks to the Civic GX and other Compressed Natural Gas Vehicles
Earlier this week I was clued-in to the explosion in popularity of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles in Southern Utah, and their potential to overwhelm the 91 refueling stations already in place there.
That’s the biggest drawback to NGVs:
- There are only about 1,600 CNG stations nationwide (compared to 200,000 gas stations), though some areas (like Utah and California) are better served than others. To see where these stations are, see the alternative fuel locater from Mapquest (under #2 on that post).
One way to get around this is to buy your own natural gas refueling station. Since a large number of us burn natural gas for heat, this doesn’t require much more than setting up a pump. The refueling kits, made by FuelMaker, will set you back about $3,500, but that can be offset by substantial tax credits.
- Second drawback: since natural gas is a compressed fuel, the tank takes up some trunk space, and only holds the equivalent of 8 gallons of gasoline. Honda estimates the vehicle’s range to be 220 to 250 miles, although Consumer Reports claimed it was closer to 180 miles.
NGV enthusiasts are getting around range limitations (and vehicle scarcity) by converting their own vehicles to run on natural gas and adding spare tank capacity. Throwing extra tanks in the bed of a truck, for example, can boost driving range to around 600 miles. The best part about converting a vehicle (as opposed to the Civic GX) is that if you run out of CNG, the system automatically switches back to gasoline.
- Third drawback: NGVs don’t provide that great of a reduction in greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions when compared to their gasoline counterparts.
According to the industry group Natural Gas Vehicles for America (NGVA), the reduction is only 20%, which is about the same GHG reduction you get from corn-based ethanol. That doesn’t sound too impressive, but it’s still a reduction, and clean air could be worth it.
The big question mark is natural gas supply. If large amounts of biomethane can be produced from biomass (which is probably already done at your local landfill), the emissions reductions would be much greater.
Rubbish. Hydrogen is far cleaner because it has *zero* harmful emissions, only water vapor.
What about the danger of natural gas? Isn’t it extremely explosive? How does that work out?
Joe: Hydrogen is only clean if produced via clean power. Right now, it’s not so clean. Same problem here: natural gas is a fossil fuel, but can also be produced by breakdown of plant material. So it just depends where you get it.
Wayne: Most of the sources say that because natural gas doesn’t pool as a liquid, but instead immediately evaporates, that it’s less likely to ignite.
The NGVA says:
“The fuel storage cylinders used in NGVs are much stronger than gasoline fuel tanks. The design of NGV cylinders are subjected to a number of federally required ” severe abuse” tests, such as heat and pressure extremes, gunfire, collisions and fires.”
http://www.naturalgas.org/business/analysis.asp
Estimates of Available Natural Gas supplies in the United States range from 1,127 - 1,451 Trillion Cubic Feet of Natural Gas.
Just like any problem we need to attack fuel usage from many angles. The government should throw down the hammer and make tighter restrictions on the type of cars you are allowed to drive. You can still buy any car you want but you will just have to pay extra tax to buy a large car when you don’t need to be driving one. All of these 20mpg cars are just a total waste. We could reduce usage by 50% right off the bat by selling cars that get 40mpg.
The use of the term “explosion” seems to be a poor choice here:
“Drawbacks to the Civic GX and other Compressed Natural Gas Vehicles
Earlier this week I was clued-in to the explosion of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles in Southern Utah…”
I thought they were literally exploding until I clicked the link.
Know the difference between ‘proven reserves’ and ‘proved reserves’. Proved reserves have increased yearly within the US. As stated by Strawgate, ‘Estimates of Available Natural Gas supplies in the United States range from 1,127 - 1,451 Trillion Cubic Feet of Natural Gas.’
Natural gas will come a time it will be expensive and the criss will be the same as oil now. Both hydrogen and methane are highly explosive. Hydrogen is more environmental friendly though is explosive but we need that explosive part of it to make our car run. On my guess compress air, water and electricity can work the magic for our transport.
@2 Steve: Point well taken. I had a good laugh when I saw that, and it has been changed to “explosion in popularity”. Thanks for the comment.
All car companies seem to be looking for a single option replacement to the long running fossil fuels vehicles we are all used to. With the available technologies many seem like good solutions for specific niches. As for the natural gas car why are they not looking at extending the functionality by making a natural gas hybrid. If the natural gas engine were used as the charging center for the electric vehicle its lower horsepower output would not be as much of an issue. Added driving range or smaller fuel storage tanks should also be a side result. Who is doing this type of vehicle?