Cars running on LPG
Comments
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It was quite a few years ago now but I was struck by how many LPG refuelling places there were in Holland.
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It's definitely a question worth asking. I remember Top Gear covering this and they were saying that motorists had the opportunity of saving a packet over petrol use. I do know that the LPG car produces loads of CO2 and this may be a reason for the Government losing interest in them. Certainly, many installers of LPG systems have gone out of business over the years due to lack of interest. However, there is always a silver lining to any cloud. The reason we have Safefill Cylinders is because they started life as LPG installers for cars. They too started to fail as customers dried up. However, they had gone to the trouble and expense of installing a gas rig so that they could refuel cars and supply gas when the installation was done. As soon as the rig was in place, idiots started asking if they would refill their Calor Cylinders!! Safefill would have nothing to do with this practice but realised there was a need in the market- the rest is history!
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Not sure I agree entirely with that promotional material DD, but generally agree!
LPG is typically a hydrocarbon fossil fuel as is petrol or diesel, the only difference is the size of the carbon chains in the molecules (carbon and hydrogen).
LPG have the smallest molecules, up to Diesel with the largest molecules.
In general, as the number of carbons increase, so does the energy density, so lpg has the lowest energy per litre and diesel the highest.
If you burn any hydrocarbon, you get (in simplistic terms) Carbon & Hydrogen molecule + Oxygen (burns releasing energy) giving Carbon Dioxide and Water (C+O -> CO2, H+O -> H2O) [plus a whole bunch of other smaller reactions from other chemicals present, sulphurs to SOx, Nitrogen to NOx etc]
lpg is not a 'low carbon fuel' other than there are proportionally fewer carbons per hydrogen in the molecule, but the lower energy density means you have to burn more to get the same efficiency.
It is certainly more consistent, being only a couple of types of hydrocarbon molecule, rather than a bunch of different species.
I think the main issue has been cost, as demand increased, so did the governments ability to tax it, doubling the price and removing much of the cost benefit from shelling out £1500 for a conversion!
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I have LPG heating/cooking here in the sticks - since 1991 - the chimney sweep checks the flue regularly and sometimes there is a pinch or two of dust collected in the bottom. Some years before that I had oil and it broke down in another home. Nice man suggested swapping to LPG because maintenance was less because it burns so clean. It's still the original Rayburn from back then and a few igniters have been replaced. At 22p a litre I still think I am winning.
My fear in a car would be an accident but petrol is gruesome too!
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Waitrose are running trucks on biomethane gas, see here Not LPG but maybe a step in the right direction.
David
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Agreed - the energy density difference is not massive a and you should be able to tell little if any difference unless you are driving like a race driver!
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I have mixed feelings about 'biofuels', we inject bioethanol and biomethanol into fuels, this is classed as green, but is only done to achieve legislation and gain 'carbon credits' to avoid taxation.
Biomethane is obviously just methane (natural gas) that has been recently made from the decomposition of fresh biological material rather than much MUCH older natural biological material.
Biofuels are not currently economically viable, without heavy subsidisation and their benefits are most often not compared like for like against, so give a distorted picture of how green they are.
Biofuels are significantly responsible for deforestation of rain forest and food shortages in third world countries as land is being used to fuel crops and/or food is being bought by western countries from poorer countries as we turn land over to fuel crops.
Us westerners are obscenely wasteful with the limited energy resources and are indirectly driving famine and the destruction of the lungs of the planet and the massive biodiversity reservoirs contained there. And that on the back of near exponential overpopulation...
...basically, either way, unless we can get nuclear fusion to work, its looking bleak for the great great grandkids!
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We still have a dual fuel car! Jeep Wrangler 4.0 litre. Goes like a bat out of hell, automatic switch over to LPG, no difference in performance, but of course the LPG price gives us equivalent of double, and sometimes more MPG. Tows great as well. We have a number of LPG outlets near us, and seldom struggle to find one when away.
We had a dual fuelled Jeep Cherokee as well at one time. Saving on fuel gave us back cost of fitting for both cars, well within a year.
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Us westerners are obscenely wasteful with the limited energy resources and are indirectly driving famine and the destruction of the lungs of the planet and the massive biodiversity reservoirs contained there. And that on the back of near exponential overpopulation...
I take you are a non EHUer CJ?
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