Roadmap for Development of Natural Gas Vehicle Fueling Infrastructructure and Analysis of Vehicular Natural Gas Consumption by Niche Sector, Final

摘要

Americas dependence on petroleum-based fuels for the transportation sector creates serious energy security, economic, air quality and other environmental challenges. Greater use of alternative fuel vehicles (AFV) is part of the solution to these challenges and natural gas vehicles (NGV) are an AFV option that offers substantial environmental, economic and energy security benefits. Despite these advantages, after more than forty years of industry and government investment in NGV and fueling infrastructure technology research and development (R&D), NGVs still account for only a very small percentage of the total U.S. vehicle inventory and transportation fuel use. For NGVs to make a greater contribution, there must be an acceleration of vehicle deployment and, critical to achieving that goal, greater infrastructure development. The U.S Department of Energy, through its National Energy Technology Laboratory, tasked the Clean Vehicle Education Foundation (CVEF) with assessing the current status of NGV fueling infrastructure and vehicular natural gas consumption in order to evaluate successes and failures, the market factors that impacted these outcomes and what steps should be taken next to facilitate further station development. While the task statement placed particular emphasis on heavy-duty niche markets where vehicle deployment and fuel consumption have been greatest, it also directed that the report address public NGV fueling infrastructure as natural gas fueling technology and standards are viewed by many as the logical pathway or bridge to future hydrogen infrastructure market development. NGV fueling infrastructure development cannot be viewed in a vacuum absent the influences of vehicle availability, government policy, market sales and service support, economic incentives and other market drivers. Individual favorable market drivers all existed at one point or another over the past forty years but were rarely in place at the same time. This directly impacted the type and amount of fuel station development, the level of station utilization and which stakeholders participated.