Benefits of Natural Gas Vehicle Conversions

Benefits of Natural Gas Vehicle Conversions

Natural gas vehicle conversions are very common among commercial and other cargo sedans. The demand for such conversions is gaining hype as the customers want to switch to other sources of fuel and to get rid of overseas oil as well. There are many benefits of using compressed gas as it is considered more environment friendly fuel and is available adequately when compared to the diesel and gasoline.

Compressed natural gas often called as CNG are offered in two types of conversion kits, namely; dedicated conversion kit and bi-fuel kit. In dedicated kit the vehicle can run on pure CNG only. Its installation in various models and constructs of vehicles involve thorough approval procedure by California Air Resource Board and E.P.A. The bi-fuel kit on the other hand is available for different kinds of cargos, wagons, buses and other hauling cars. The bi-fuel technology allows the vehicle to run on both the original fuel and CNG. Though one has the option to switch to either source of fuel but this kit is not marked as safe for the environment as the CNG run vehicle itself.

Natural gas vehicle conversions comprise of cylinder-shaped tanks that have to go through stern conformity testing. The
pressure range of gas varies from 3,000-3,600 pounds/square inch with a compression level less than one percent of its original state. The CNG cylinders have the threat of possible spill out and leakage, thus the system is totally preserved. In case of leakage the natural gas could be dispelled in the air opposed to the gasoline that spills down on the land. CNG is non poisonous, non acidic and lighter than the air, thus won’t pollute the earth water reservoirs.

The kits for natural gas vehicle conversions are firstly approved by the CARB and E.P.A. These kits are offered for 6 liter capacity GM engines and 6.8 liter capacity Ford engines. The estimated conversion cost is 12,000 dollars that depends on various things such as type of sedan, type of kit installed and certified installer of the kit. The expensive parts in these kits are the cylinders that easily compensate its cost in cargo vehicles as compared to personal used cars. Tax inducement is present for purchasing and functioning of these conversion kits from the local states in addition to the federal government.

Prior to the buying decision of the CNG conversion kit one has to check the availability of the CNG stations in the locality otherwise it will cause inconvenience for the customer. As per records of department of energy in USA there are 850 CNG stations all over the USA. However, the number of gas stations is increasing as the demand of the customers for CNG fuel is growing with time. Eventually the prices of the conversion kits will decrease with time as more customers are switching to this fuel source. It will attract more customers in the long run and the infrastructure is more likely to progress accordingly.