METHANOL AND NATURAL GAS

But in case you thought I run down everything on principle, take a look at natural gas (I leave out electric cars this time). As one who has not fallen for the greenhouse hoax (natural gas is mostly methane, an absorber of infrared), I look at the plentiful supply in the US and other politically stable countries, at the comparatively low cost (with a $2,000 retrofit per vehicle, large fleets break even on the lower fuel cost already), the comparatively good perfor-mance (10% below gasoline), the easy starts (gas needs no car-buretor), and above all the comparatively wide use that natural gas is already enjoying: 300,000 vehicles in Italy, 250,000 in the USSR, 100,000 in Australia, 15,000 in Canada. An official in the gas industry tells me that Argentina is now converting at the rate of 10,000 cars a month voluntarily, without government support. And because I am a true environmentalist, not a Sierra-Club impostor, I note that unlike gasoline, gas is neither toxic, nor carcinogenic, nor caustic.

The US now has 30,000 gas-powered vehicles, all in large fleets such as owned by utilities. Both GM and Ford are coming out with a 1991 gas-driven truck that costs about $500 more than the gasoline-driven model; however, this is a dedicated model, not one switchable between gas and gasoline, whose price would be con-siderably higher.

The two great disadvantages are low range and lack of an infra-structure for distribution. There are also smaller bugs such as at least double the time for filling up compared with gasoline. A con-verted car has only a 100 mile range between refills (the two trucks above have a flat tank under the bed and attain a range of 200 miles).

At present this makes it suitable only for cars of company fleets that drive around town, but that could change in a few years in some places. If gasoline prices go up substantially, the home tank and compressor could make an appearance to form the beginning of an infrastructure, and the small range might not dissuade short-distance commuters.

There are two systems of storing the gas in a tank: compressed and liquid (cooled), and I will return to this subject in future.

And there you have another advantage of government in the economy if the alcohol fuels win, we will never know whether this was due to their superiority or just to the absence of a gas-fuel lobby.

[More: "Replacing gasoline: Alternative fuels for light-duty vehicles," OTA Report OTA-E-364, September 1990, 148 pp., $7 from GPO, Washington, DC 20402 (stock no. 052-003-01260-5). When you ignore the long litanies about what which fuel does to global warming and the ozone layer, there is still plenty left to make this a useful report. see also L. Frank Pitts, "How to survive the Rock Fight in the Greenhouse," The Landman (4100 Fossil Creek Blvd., Ft. Worth, TX 76137), Sept./Oct. 1990.]