ANG – A NEW CONCEPT FOR GLOBAL MASS IMPLEMENTATION OF NATURAL GAS VEHICLES

ABSTRACT
Natural Gas is the clean and in the same time cheap motor fuel having potential of mass implementation for vehicles and substantial air quality improvement in the nearest future. Natural Gas Vehicles introduction is limited by extremely high filling infrastructure costs and inconvenience of vehicle gas tanks. Adsorbed Natural Gas (ANG) technology is the breakthrough solution for the effective vehicle on-board gas storage as well as for gas transportation and distribution needs. ANG is an alternative to Compressed Natural Gas method proposing the storage of similar gas amounts at much lower pressure - 40 bar instead of 200 bar. According to ANG method special porous materials placed inside of the storage container adsorb large quantities of the gas. AngStore firstly developed the ANG storage system for vehicle that can be implemented for commercial use. Due to lower pressure ANG method reduces overall costs of NGV implementation and solves refueling infrastructure organization problems (market failure, etc.). For instance, in Indian conditions the cost of typical large filling station can be reduced from $1 million to $300 thousands. In addition low-pressure gas storage tanks, having the free shape potential, provide special advantages for small 2-3 wheel vehicles. To realize great potential of ANG vehicle fueling solution we need to mobilize joint efforts of gas infrastructure companies/authorities and vehicle manufacturers.