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My two cents...Natural Gas vehicles
It worked for 35 years for a major Southern California gas utility. We had set ups during the 1970's that we called "Dual Fuel", cars and light trucks that ran on natural gas. In those days the cars ran great for the most part, but wouldn't switch back and forth from natural gas to gasolene very well and the natural gas had no power and only a 100 mile range.
Now in the 1990's and today the Company has vehicles that are dedicated to natural gas only, from the factory. These vehicles run great and are very powerful. The big problem is going to be "range" or distance you can travel with only two small cylinders for compressed fuel storage, "that old 100 mile range thing".
Natural Gas currently powers all the transit buses in the LA area (converted diesels) and works quit well. Natural gas is great for fleet uses with vehicles that only travel short distances around town. When I left the Company (1998)we had about 60 fueling stations around LA area where you can pull in and refill your vehicle in about two minutes, this worked out well for fleet users and special vehicles that participated in the program.
The way I see it, the only way to get the range is by liquifing the gas to 300 degrees below zero) in a special thermos bottle cylinder fuel tank, we've had this ability for several years.
The next thing is to develop a system to install quick fill stations at existing gas stations around the states where there are gas mains available.
The next thing is to have the feds. force all manufactures to offer a dual fuel vehicle. A new "dual fuel" vehicle that would run on gasolene and natural gas will do the trick. The performance will be much better than our 1970's program because with computer controlled motors and fuel injection the performance will be there.
Anyway, you can see that if we will spend the money..Natural gas will be a great alternative to gasolene.
Best Regards, Bill
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