Re: More on LNG

[Grant Lee <grantlee@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Mike,

We must have that beer some time soon.

> Is LNG the same as what's being promoted in Australia
> as LPG?  So as when "we" run low on petrol (peak oil),
> "we" can sell zeez nice carbon based stuff for the
> burning.  In Australia, most petrol stations already
> sell "LPG" or as it is known, "auto gas".  To use it,
> one needs to refit one's engine.  The advantage is
> that it costs half what petrol costs.

The short answer is that they are both petroleum products, and are both
based on butane and/or propane, along with various other components.

Natural gas is "natural" because it more or less comes straight out of the
ground; it's the stuff piped huge distances from gasfields and used in our
homes. (Before large quantities of natural gas were found, coal gas [a.k.a
"town gas"], produced by warming coal just below burning temperature and
capturing the emissions, was the reticulated gas used for domestic purposes,
19th C. street lighting etc.)

LPG is a more recent and more volatile product of refining, designed as an
internal combustion fuel, like diesel, petrol/gasoline, avgas, kerosene,
paraffin, etc.

Both natural gas and refined petroleum gas liquefy when chilled, hence LNG
and LPG. (As you probably know, most taxis in Australia run on LPG; when I
was a cab driver there were some wild stories, probably urban legends, about
the properties of super-chilled LPG, but I digress :-)

And just to confuse you further, a handful of vehicles here have been
adapted to run on LNG, although this does not seem to have been a huge
success and I suspect that its lower volatility is a problem.

regards,

Grant