Natural Gas Vehicles — Here today, Here Tomorrow
Natural gas plays an increasingly important role in the balanced use of energy resources for transportation in the U.S. — for a broad range of reasons. Available domestically, natural gas is a clean-burning, safe and economically viable fuel alternative that offers direct solutions to many of the challenges transportation faces, including environmental, health, security and infrastructural challenges. Available as compressed and liquefied fuels, natural gas offers flexible applications for fleet vehicles, light trucks and heavy-duty trucks that travel long distances with heavy loads. Implemented here and now by growing numbers within the transportation sector, natural gas also bridges the gap to hydrogen.

Learn more about why increasing numbers of vehicles and fleets are turning to natural gas.

Find out how liquefied natural gas is meeting the specific needs of heavy-duty, long-distance vehicles.

What is compressed natural gas, and what it its best use for transportation?

Liquified natural gas

LNG for the Long Haul
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) refers to natural gas that has been cooled to 260 degrees below zero. During the liquefaction process, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and sulfur compounds are removed, leaving a “pure” fuel with a nearly 100% methane content. Because of the below-freezing temperatures, LNG fuel must be handled by trained personnel.

By allowing the onboard storage of large amounts of fuel, LNG offers an ideal application for heavy-duty vehicles with long-distance hauls, with significant advantages over diesel.

• LNG vehicles produce half of the particulate matters, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic hydrocarbon emissions of diesel vehicles.
• Potential reductions in carbon dioxide emissions reach 25% (depending on the source of natural gas).
• LNG’s cost per mile is generally less than or equal to the price of diesel.

Because of its complex onboard storage system, LNG is not a viable fuel for light-duty trucks.

Source: EPA’s Clean Alternative Fuels: Liquefied Natural Gas, March 2002.

Compressed natural gas

Compressed Natural Gas — Fuel for Fleets
Compressed natural gas (CNG) is stored on vehicles in a high-pressure fuel cylinder at 3,000 to 3,600 pounds per square inch. CNG offers a number of advantages, particularly for fleets of vehicles such as taxis, buses, waste removal vehicles, shuttle buses, school buses and transit buses.

• Dedicated CNG vehicles can experience greater power, acceleration and cruise speed than gasoline-powered vehicles.
• A cleaner burning fuel, CNG can improve overall vehicle lifetime.
• Compared to diesel, CNG offers significant noise reduction when used in heavy-duty vehicles.
• Typically, when compared to conventional gasoline, CNG reduces carbon monoxide emissions from 90-97%, and nitrogen oxides emissions from 50-75%.
• CNG vehicles emit little to no particulate matter.

Source: EPA’s Clean Alternative Fuels: Compressed Natural Gas. March 2002.