News Letter

COMMPRESSED NATURAL GAS (CNG)

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is a readily available alternative to gasoline that’s made by compressing natural gas to less than 1% of its volume at standard atmospheric pressure. Consisting mostly of methane, CNG is odorless, colorless and tasteless. It's drawn from domestically drilled gas wells or in conjunction with crude oil production.

The interest in natural gas as an alternative transportation fuel stems mainly from its clean-burning qualities, its domestic resource base, and its commercial availability.

Because of the gaseous nature of this fuel, it must be stored onboard a vehicle as a compressed gaseous (compressed natural gas, CNG) state. CNG is considered alternative fuels under the Energy Policy Act of 1992.

To provide adequate driving range, CNG must be stored onboard a vehicle in tanks at high pressure—up to 3,600 pounds per square inch. A CNG-powered vehicle gets about the same fuel economy as a conventional gasoline vehicle on a gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) basis. A GGE is the amount of alternative fuel that contains the same amount of energy as a gallon of gasoline. A GGE equals about 5.7 lb (2.6 kg) of CNG.