CUSTOMIZED GAS STORAGE FUEL SYSTEMS FOR NATURAL GAS VEHICLES

摘要

Analysis of the natural gas vehicles (NGV) users'wish list' (and expectations) for a range of NGV vehicle typesis used to identify the type of on-board fuel storage systemrequired. Discussion is focused on compressed natural gas(CNG) storage rather than liquid natural gas (LNG) oradsorbed natural gas storage (ANG) because the latter twooptions are considered restricted to specific markets, such ascontinuous vehicle use applications usually involving heavy-duty trucks for LNG and specialist niche market opportunitiesfor ANG. Available types of high pressure gas cylinders arebriefly reviewed and a simple technique is described tofacilitate comparison of the cylinder types for given cylinderdiameters and lengths. Options to maximize CNG storage on-board vehicles whilst minimizing loss of 'user' space areevaluated and an example is provided showing a significantimprovement to both 'trunk' space and mileage range for acurrently available commercial NGV. The latter may beachieved by maximizing 'non-user' space for on-board fuelstorage and in some cases accepting having to employ smallerdiameter high pressure gas cylinders.