LNG: an alternative fuel for road freight transport in Europe

Abstract

Currently, energy consumption in the worldwide transport sector depends on 92.8% oil fuels. This dependency, among other problems, produces high levels of harmful emissions, which makes it necessary to increase the use of less polluting and more cost-effective alternative sources as natural gas. Furthermore, this alternative fuel must have autonomy, security and as optimal storage volume as the natural gas use in liquid state. This paper reviews the liquefied natural gas (LNG) use advantages over other fuels and analyses its introduction prospects in the transport sector in Europe, specifically in road freight transport. Natural gas (NG) technology for transportation is mature and extended through the compressed use (CNG) in urban light vehicles. However, CNG has not been attractive for extra-urban use mainly by the limited energy storage volume and difficulties for NG stations installation. For this problem, a LNG vehicle with the same fuel tank size could travel up to 2.4 times the distance compared with CNG. LNG in heavy-duty trucks reduces GHG emissions per kilometre up to 20% and almost 100% SOx and particulate matter, as well the noise in inner cities, compared to diesel trucks. An additional advantage is the operation cost savings that would give a LNG conversion payback between 1 and 3 years. The European Union has promoted the construction of LNG stations by the TEN-T programme and projects as the 'LNG Blue Corridors' in order to create a road network with LNG stations each 400 km. In addition, the world natural gas reserves would ensure the energy supply for the transport sector in Europe. Hence, the LNG for road freight transport is a potential alternative to replace the traditional fuels in the short to medium term.

Petroleum substitution, greenhouse gas emissions reduction and environmental benefits from the development of natural gas vehicles in China

“…Because NG is clean burning and confers power supply advantages, NG fuel is a viable alternative to traditional gasoline/diesel fuel (Hao et al 2016;Khan et al 2015;Osorio-Tejada et al 2015). In recent years, China has increased its efforts to reduce transportation emissions and to reduce the dependence on foreign oil by using NG fuel and by developing natural gas vehicles (NGVs) (see Table 1).…”

Advantages and Disadvantages of Diesel Single and Dual-Fuel Engines

“…Diesel-LNG (Goudie et al, 2004;Osorio-Tejada et al, 2015;Laughlin and Burnham, 2016), diesel-CNG (Maji et al, 2008;Shah et al, 2011;Ryu, 2013) or diesel-LPG (Jian et al, 2001;Ashok et al, 2015) engines supply like diesel fuel conversion efficiency and power density, while improving the emissions, for both regulated pollutants (PM, NOx) and CO 2 . LNG can be used for heavy-duty trucks, due to the cryogenic storage.…”

“…As the ICE is certainly needed for more decades to come, further improvements of the lean burn, CIDI ICE will be beneficial to the economy and the environment. In addition to diesel CIDI ICEs, this work also considers dual-fuel engines diesel-LNG (Goudie et al, 2004;Osorio-Tejada et al, 2015;Laughlin and Burnham, 2016), diesel-CNG (Maji et al, 2008;Shah et al, 2011;Ryu, 2013) or diesel-LPG (Jian et al, 2001;Ashok et al, 2015). The operation with a small amount of diesel and a much larger (in energy term) amount of a much lighter hydrocarbon fuel, with a reduced carbon to hydrogen content, permits to further reduce the PM engine-out emissions, as well as the CO 2 emissions, and being liberated from the PM-NOx tradeoff that afflict the diesel-only injection strategies, also reduce the engine-out emissions of NOx.…”

Advances in Diesel-LNG Internal Combustion Engines

“…Because of the cryogenic temperatures, LNG is more practical on large HDT continuously in movement than small passenger cars mostly parked. Diesel-LNG engines are becoming popular for ships and heavy-duty truck propulsion [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”