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How can methane cut carbon dioxide emissions, why electric engines are behind gas ones, how can vehicle makers be reasoned to switch to gas fuel – all these issues, topical for the industry, were discussed by the speakers at the panel discussion Gas and transport on Day 4 of the 9^th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum.

Alexander Medvedev, Advisor to CEO of Gazprom export, reported that today the world consumes 26 bln m3 of gas, whereas by 2025 this value is expected to overcome the limit of 100 bln m3. However, despite the relevance of this resource, the voice of the gas industry is barely heard in political circles, and some of government officials even try to put a downer on its ‘clear image,’ the speaker said. Business regularly has to reason about competitive properties of methane in front of the government, while they are actually rather obvious. Thus, natural gas provides 25% less emissions than petroleum fuel and 30% less than diesel fuel.

Moreover, compared to diesel fuel transport, natural gas vehicles emit 70% less nitrogen oxide, which in fact is much more dangerous for human help than СО₂, which methane engines produce in insignificant amounts – 95% less than petroleum engines. Another point is that gas engines produce twice as little noise if compared to diesel ones. The expert called on the colleagues to take efforts to overcome the anti-gas lobby, because there would be no progress without state support. Today, Europe mostly supports electrical transport, which promotes increase of electromobile sales. Without support from the state this sector won’t be as competitive. To confirm his point, the speaker put the case of Denmark, where sales of electromobiles had fallen by 60% after cancellation of tax exemptions for operation of such transport.

Vladimir Chagin, Russian racing car driver and sevenfold winner of the Dakar Rally in the cargo vehicle class, shared his experience of using a gas-diesel engine during the Silk Way Rally. The sportsman said that lately race arrangers started to impose more rigorous requirements to race participants as regards to smoke production – with the view to reduce environmental damage. “Structural engineers of racing teams have to look for some solutions to keep engines as powerful, but reduce amounts of smoke they produce. If smoke is visible, participants are subject to time penalty,” he explained.

This became a reason for collaboration with Gazprom Gas-Engine Fuel LLC. Operation of a gas-diesel car at the Russian championship brought it to the table: smoke amounts were significantly reduced, and dynamics improved, especially at dunes, where engine power matters indeed. It was also discovered that gas-diesel combination costs 15% less than traditional fuel. KAMAZ Master team has been applying this mix to fuel their cargo vehicle for races for 7 years already.

Dmitry Khandoga, Deputy Head of Department at Gazprom, continued the subject of environmental pollution with emissions in his speech. He presented some statistics, according to which one container truck emits as many harmful substances as a million of passenger vehicles. He emphasized that Gazprom takes efforts to promote switching to gas fuel and owns the largest methane engine car fleet, which includes vehicles operated at fields, as well as at low and high pressure gas pipelines. Totally, the automotive fleet of Gazprom comprises over 11 thousand vehicles, about 300 filling stations all across Russia, and more than 60 gas filling stations in Germany and Czechia.

Dmitry Khandoga is sure that the gas engine fuel market can only be developed by means of joint efforts: “Who’s ready to make the first move? The first move should be made by a team. Gazprom is ready to undertake liabilities for infrastructure development, but for that vehicle makers have to undertake obligations on development of their business, of gas vehicle sales. Moreover, we need support at both the municipal and state levels. In fact, such a team should comprise three players: regulation, manufacturers, and infrastructure. This way, we’ll be able to see some material growth.”

Mariarosa Baroni, President of NGV Italy and NGV International Academy, told her colleagues how they’d managed to achieve the top level of switching transport to gas in Europe. Today, Italy has 1 thousand fueling stations per 1.5 mln of cars on liquefied natural gas. In the nearest future, the company plans to issue models with new engines like Lamborghini and Maserati have, as well as some prototypes of agricultural machines. Moreover, NGV Italy is going to inspire other European car makers to reequip their vehicles.

However, according to the speaker, in Italy there are enough regulatory challenges that prevent transport gasification – in particular, on the part of the state government, and to a bigger extent, from the European Union, which mainly cares about electromobiles. “I hope the government will understand that electrical transport won’t do us much good. Let’s be honest: we lack electric energy, and we are unable to compete with China in this segment,” she confessed.  The speaker shared some plans on hybrid fuel development, too: today, the company is testing a mix of hydrogen and compressed natural gas (CNG), which contains 5% of hydrogen, but they intend to test another fuel that contains 1/5 of hydrogen soon.

Andrea Gerini, Secretary General of NGVA Europe, took on the subject of comparison for gas vehicles and electromobiles. He believes that the problem with electromobiles is that their batteries can’t be recycled.

According to the Association’s research, switching from petrol fuel to natural gas will reduce CO₂ atmospheric emissions by 23%, to CNG engines – by 27%, to hydrogen and CNG mixes – by another 36%, and hybrid engines using methane and small batteries that won’t bring much harm to ecology will reduce harmful emissions by 46%.

Jean-Claude Girot, President of the French Gas Engine Fuel Association (AFGNV), informed his colleagues that they’d signed agreements with major car producers like Volkswagen Group and Fiat, developing natural-gas-based technologies. Moreover, the speaker remarked that Emmanuel Macron, President of France, is the first politician to support the industry with his solution on tax rates freezing for LNG vehicles for the period of 2017 to 2022. Another point is that the French government financially supports the fuelling infrastructure development.

In the end of the session, the participants agreed that new fuel technologies should be applied to dumptrucks and other municipal and public vehicles in the first place, as it will make air in cities much cleaner.