[Travis T. OJustice]

People go nuts for electric cars, I say why aren’t we using more LNG for cars and trucks?

The state of Connecticut routinely buys duel-fuel cars (gas and LNG) but have no refueling station anywhere near where most people use the cars, the capitol.

[thackney]

why aren’t we using more LNG for cars and trucks?

LNG must be kept at -260°F or it boils off and has to be vented when the pressure rises too high. LNG is not a good choice for consumers, especially those parking in a garage. CNG (compressed, not liquid nat gas) is better for us basic consumers.

LNG works better for long haul truckers, or service vehicles that return every night to a maintenance garage. It has become a good fuel choice for many garbage trucks and UPS type delivery vehicles.

[cripplecreek]

Ford is leading the private sector charge on NG powered vehicles. I have concerns about power and miles per gallon but don’t doubt that Ford will continue to improve them.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

I did a college research paper on the subject and actually in my humble opinion it looks quite promising. If anybody is super interested, let me know and I'll see if I can dig it up. This is the what I remember off the top of my head super compressed version.

Railroads have been studying this for a while, and the results were quite promising thought they did have some issues with being able to refuel them to full and sometimes they ran out of gas unexpectedly. UPS, I believe it was in 2002 tried out CNG (which is much easier to use) for delivery trucks in Saint Louis and had success with them.

For whatever use, the infrastructure is the largest expense. Thought railroads probably could do this in stages the easiest, as they could assign LNG locomotives to divisions that have a refueling station. A Similar strategy to how the Pennsylvania and Milwaukee Road used their electric locomotives.

For the longest time the price of natural gas has been tied to the price of oil and never varies from it by more than a certain range. So for those looking to use natural gas they could expect high prices when oil prices were high and the overall savings were generally not viewed as enough to justify the investment in infrastructure. Fracking may have changed that and separated the price of natural gas from oil so that even as oil prices climb the price of natural gas may not. So now seems to be the time to pursue the idea.

It certainly makes more sense than Ethanol, switch grass, and the other nonsense.