CNG

23.5 million vehicles powered by natural gas in the European Union by the year 2020

In December 2001, the European Commission (EC) adopted an action plan and two draft directives aiming to use alternative fuel types in transport, giving a clear signal that such fuel would be preferred in the future. The action plan outlined the strategy of how the current 15 EU Member States want to replace 20% of gasoline and diesel fuel with alternative fuel types by 2020. Only three alternative fuels/technologies are capable of replacing more than 5% of motor fuel consumption during the next 20 years.

a) bio-fuel, already used,
b) natural gas, in the medium term,
c) hydrogen and fuel cells, in the long term.

The key factors motivating the EC's new political initiatives were energy security and environmental protection (reduction of the CO2 emissions that create the greenhouse effect).

The European Commission foresees the use of natural gas as a renewable source of energy (biogas) in compressed (CNG) and liquid (LNG) forms as well as a raw material that can be used for the production of nitrogen in the future.
The action plan expects that natural gas will replace 10% of the current crude-oil-based fuels by 2020. Specifically, this plan translates into the following:

• 23.5 million vehicles powered by natural gas (at present, there are 0.43 million CNG vehicles),
• 47 billion cubic meters of natural gas consumed as a motor fuel (at present 0.5 billion cubic meters is consumed),
• approximately 20,000 natural gas fuel stations (at present, there are 900 stations).

Forecast Developments

Bio-fuel can be used in existing vehicles immediately, and natural gas is a commonly available fuel. Bio-fuels, and to some extent natural gas, are already supported by the existing infrastructure; however, the use of hydrogen is only in its beginnings. That said, hydrogen is the most promising alternative to conventional fuel types, but the EC thinks that full commercial use of hydrogen will not exist for many years yet.

As to other alternative fuels and technologies, the European Commission has considered electromobiles, hybrid vehicles, methanol, dimethylether (DME), diesel fuel produced from natural gas, and LPG propane-butane, which are not expected to develop to a significant extent in the future. Nonetheless, EC will monitor them to ensure energy security, environmental protection, and the developments of promising technologies and fuel production methods.

The recent EC initiatives reflect the first European legislative support for alternative fuel types. As such, the European Union has made an important step acknowledging the significance of alternative fuel types, natural gas in particular, as an economic and ecological substitute for fuels based on crude oil.