Technical and Feasibility Analysis of Gasoline and Natural Gas Fuelled Vehicles

There is recent interest for the utilisation of natural gas for empowering the internal combustion engines (ICE) of vehicles. The production of novel natural gas ICE for vehicles, as well as the conversion of existing gasoline fuelled ICE of vehicles to natural gas fuelled ICE are new technologies which require to be analysed and assessed. The objective of the present study is to examine the adaptation of natural gas as vehicle fuel and carry out a technical analysis and an economical feasibility analysis of the two types of ICE vehicles, namely gasoline and natural gas fuelled vehicles. The technical model uses the physical properties of the two fuels and the performance factors of internal combustion engines including brake thermal efficiency. The resulting exhaust gas emissions are also estimated by the technical model using combustion calculations which provide the expected levels of exhaust gas emissions. Based on the analysis with the technical model, comparisons of the two types of engines are performed. Furthermore, the estimated performance characteristics of the two types of engines, along with local statistical data on annual fuel imports and annual fuel consumption for transportation and data on the vehicles fleet for the case study of Cyprus are used as input in the economical model. For the base year 2013, data of natural gas price is also used in the economical model. The economical model estimates the capital cost, the carbon dioxide emissions avoidance of fines, the net present value and the internal rate of return of the investment of large scale adaptation of natural gas fuelled vehicles for the case study. From the results and comparisons, conclusions are drawn and recommendations are provided for the adaptation of natural gas vehicles which can provide improved performance with reduced pollutant emissions.