For the past 20 years, the entire automotive industry has been looking for alternatives: hybrid, electric, hydrogen and even water. Natural gas-based automotive fuel is one of the most obvious alternatives that countries with their own gas reserves are actively introducing.
In Russia today, a new round of interest in NGV fuel. Infrastructure is being actively built, car manufacturers are preparing and launching new models created for gas use, and Gazprom has launched a new brand of automotive fuel, EcoGas.
There are four main myths that go around NGV fuel. By the forces of specialists, we’ll try to figure out where the truth is.
The first myth: savings when working on EcoGas are conditional - it does not overlap the cost of equipment
Financial gain is the first and foremost argument for EcoGas. The reserves of this automobile fuel will last us a couple of centuries in advance and its price is stable. At a gas station EcoGas today costs from 13 to 15 rubles per cubic meter, and 1 cubic meter of gas is equivalent to 1 liter of gasoline. This means that the cost of each kilometer for a motorist is 2-3 times lower.
Converting a car to natural gas today costs between 60 and 90 thousand rubles. For this money, you get modern equipment of the latest generation, safe lightweight composite containers and full support for registering equipment with the traffic police. It is easy to calculate that with a mileage of 20 thousand km per year, the installation will pay off already in the second year of operation of the car.
Myth two: saving on fuel is consumed by additional costs for repair and maintenance of engines, since gas causes damage to its condition
EcoGas is one of the cleanest automotive fuels. Fuel is extracted from the bowels and delivered to refueling complexes via pipelines. The octane number of natural gas is from 105 to 110 units. The myth itself is largely connected with the experience of using gas even on the old carburetor technology, when the ignition system was not regulated in any way when switching from gas to gas and back, which could lead to many problems. In addition, the prevalence of cars based on the propane-butane mixture derived from petroleum played a role in this myth: the quality characteristics of this fuel are affected by seasonality, good filtration and the manufacturer. The quality of natural gas EcoGas does not depend on the season, and the gas itself does not contain particulate matter or impurities.
Myth three: natural gas is dangerous because it is under pressure
This myth, of course, formed the very attitude towards household gas, which we have been taught to treat with caution and special attention since childhood. However, EcoGas is one of the safest fuels. In its class, it is safer than the same gasoline, and that's why. Natural gas is lighter than air, volatilizes and does not accumulate in cavities during leakage - it does not create a dangerous mixture with air. In addition, the modern EcoGas storage tanks that are installed in the car are made of composite materials. In case of emergency exposure, for example, in a serious accident, the container does not burst with cotton, but spreads through the fibers, gradually reducing the pressure in the container.
Myth four: when using gas, the car loses power
In part, we have already said what is the reason for the appearance of this myth and how a modern car refutes it. If you have an injection engine, it will not lose if properly configured, and in some cases it will gain in power. This is possible thanks to a high octane number of EcoGas of 110 units - in fact, like racing fuel.
The power of a car using natural gas was proved several times by the KAMAZ-master team at the Africa Eco Flight rally marathons, where it occupied honorable prizes. The eminent racing team has a car that runs on a gas-diesel cycle. And in April 2017 in the Crimea there was a rally-raid “BACHA CRIMEA”, where NIVA 4x4 CNG, powered by EcoGas, took the second place.
When using EcoGas as a bonus, a car enthusiast gets a reduction in noise - with the right settings, the level of noise generated by the engine decreases by 3–8 dB, and the engine starts to run softer. In addition, the dual-fuel machine acquires a second source of fuel, which means that you can go without refueling for much longer.
