Battery: The battery provides electricity to start the engine and power vehicle electronics/accessories.
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Electronic control module (ECM): The ECM controls the fuel mixture, ignition timing, and emissions system; monitors the operation of the vehicle; safeguards the engine from abuse; and detects and troubleshoots problems.
Exhaust system: The exhaust system channels the exhaust gases from the engine out through the tailpipe. A three-way catalyst is designed to reduce engine-out emissions within the exhaust system.
Fuel filler: A nozzle from a fuel dispenser attaches to the receptacle on the vehicle to fill the tank.
Fuel injection system: This system introduces fuel into the engine's combustion chambers for ignition.
Fuel line: A metal tube or flexible hose (or a combination of these) transfers fuel from the tank to the engine's fuel injection system.
Fuel tank (liquefied natural gas): Stores liquefied natural gas on board the vehicle until it's needed by the engine.
Internal combustion engine (spark-ignited): In this configuration, fuel is injected into either the intake manifold or the combustion chamber, where it is combined with air, and the air/fuel mixture is ignited by the spark from a spark plug.
Transmission: The transmission transfers mechanical power from the engine and/or electric traction motor to drive the wheels.
Natural gas vehicle fuel storage is a challenge of natural gas vehicles since the vehicles can't keep natural gas at ambient pressure and temperature. This storage has been one of the major engineering challenges of using natural gas for vehicles, but there are several solutions. Natural gas is normally a gas at 1 atm and 25°C. NGV fuel circumvents this problem in any of three different ways:
Compressed Natural Gas
[1]CNG Storage for Vehicle - Source: FIBA
Compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles use natural gas that has been pressurized between and psi.[2] The storage vessel is made mostly of heavy walled steel or carbon-fiber/epoxy cylinders.[2] Sometimes CNG vehicles have reduced cargo space because of the design and placement of the tank.
Two important modifications to CNG vehicles are:
CNG is most suited for short distance travel vehicles that don&#;t need a lot of space like transit, cars, vans, and pickup trucks. Retrofitting regular gasoline vehicles (do we mean CNG?) costs an additional $6,000 to $13,000.[3] This cost is recovered from fuel savings through higher fuel efficiency.
CNG vehicles have a very high octane rating, which allows these vehicles to run smoother. CNG does not experience boil off evaporation like LNG because of it stays at ambient temperature. Additionally, the same spark plug engines used for gasoline engines works well for both CNG and LNG fuels.
Liquefied Natural Gas
[4]LNG Storage in Vehicle - Source: VRV
LNG vehicles use natural gas that has been cooled to a cryogenic liquid, (between -160 to -128°C) and at a pressure of 50 to 150 psig.[5] Double walled vessels having insulation and vacuum in the annular space, and is used to store LNG to help maintain the temperature.[6] LNG tanks can hold 2 to 3 times more gas per unit volume than CNG tanks, while cutting the cost per km by almost 1.5 times.[7]. Before the natural gas goes into the engine, LNG is converted to gas through regasifying systems.[7]
For more information, please visit LNG on-vehicle cylinders.
LNG is preferred for long-haul applications like refuse trucks, buses, and trains because of energy density.[8] An estimated fifteen North American truck and transit bus manufacturers exist currently, and they can provide LNG trucks at around $35,000.[8]
Some LNG in the tank will boil-off due to the heat transfer from outside temperature with time. A long-haul vehicle sees the boil-off effect to a lesser degree, and a technological management system exists to reduce this problem, but this leads to an increased total weight of system. This boil-off problem makes LNG less suited to regular passenger vehicles.[8]
Adsorbent Natural Gas
Adsorbent natural gas (ANG) is a new technology that is similar to CNG, except ANG allows the storage of natural gas at a lower pressure than CNG because it uses porous adsorbent materials at relatively low pressures of 500 to 600 psig.[9] Because of the lower pressure, we can save costs required to pump and store natural gas in ANG compared to CNG. ANG can store half to two-thirds the amount of gas at one-sixth of the pressure of CNG.
The adsorbent materials are carbon derived and highly disordered. The best carbon material is PDVC Carbon (a type of carbon structure), because it adsorbs lots of natural gas while leaving minimal void space due to narrow pores.[2]
The biggest disadvantage is the readsorption is not complete and 15% to 30% of natural gas in adsorbent is unused.[10] Adsorption is exothermic, which reduces the extent of adsorption during refueling. Similarly desorption has a cooling effect where temperatures drop extensively making it difficult to delivery the gas to engine.
For Further Reading
References
FIBA. &#;An Overview of CNG Storage Option.&#; http://blog.fibatech.com/cng/cng-storage/ . [Accessed on 31 October ]
David Quinn. ( July). &#;Adsorption Storage A viable alternative to compression for natural gas powered vehicles?&#; [Online]. Available: http://all-craft.missouri.edu/Reports/ANG.pdf . [Accessed 12 October ]
David Brookstein and Muthu Govindaraj. Creating an Infrastructure for Compressed Natural Gas Delivery for Automotive Transportation. [Online]. Available: http://www.industrystudies.pitt.edu/pittsburgh12/documents/3.2%20-%20Brookstein%20(Slides).pdf . [Accessed 15 October ]
VRV Group. &#;LNG equipment&#;. . [Online]. Available: http://www.vrv.com/vrv/en/products/14/65/78/lng-equipment . [Accessed on 31 October ]
Hongbo Tan et al. ( May). &#;Energy.&#; Experimental study on liquid/solid phase change for cold energy storage of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) refrigerated vehicle. [Online]. 35(5), pp. -. Available: http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/science/article/pii/S . [Accessed 15 October ]
JOENG. ( June 26). &#;Journal of Engineering.&#; Northstar, Inc. Patent Issued for Liquefied Natural Gas System for a Natural Gas Vehicle. [Online]. Available: http://sfxhosted.exlibrisgroup.com/calgary?ctx_ver=Z39.88-&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Patent%20Issued%20for%20Liquefied%20Natural%20Gas%20System%20for%20a%20Natural%20Gas%20Vehicle&rft.jtitle=Journal%20of%20Engineering&rft.date=-06-26&rft.issn=-&rft.eissn=-872X&rft.spage=578&rft.externalDocID=Journal_of_Engineering__06_26_578_Northstar_Inc_Patent_Issued_for_Liquefied_Natural_Gas_System_for_a_Natural_Gas_Vehicle¶mdict=en-US . [Accessed 16 October ]
V.A. Peredel&#;skii. (). &#;Chemical and Petroleum Engineering.&#; ANALYSIS OF THE DESIRABILITY OF REPLACING PETROLEUM-BASED VEHICLE FUEL WITH LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS. [Online]. 41, 11-12. Avaliable: http://link.springer.com/article/10.%2Fs-006--2 . [Accessed 16 October ]
Mihai Ursan. ( November). &#;What is boil-off?&#; Internet: http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/doc//wp29grpe/LNG_TF-02-06e.pdf , November 3, . [Accessed 25 October ]
GL Noble Denton. &#;Low Pressure Adsorbed Natural Gas for Vehicles.&#; Internet: http://www.gl-nobledenton.com/assets/downloads/ANG_for_Vehicle_truck_DS.pdf . [Accessed 26 October ]
R.W. Judd et al. &#;Gas Research and Technology Centre.&#; The Use of Adsorbed Natural Gas Technology for Large Scale Storage.
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