Hours before Obama’s call for Americans to be packed into CNG explosive cars, this explosion occurred on a high pressure gas pipeline in Canada at -32C. It burned for 12 hours with flames 300 feet tall. It was one of at least five explosions which have occurred on that pipeline since 1957.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqmPcqlbktU]
Yeah CNG, what is it , 10,000 psi? And filling up takes forever. Obama is stuck on stupid.
Okay for short and mid haul trains and trucks, not passenger cars. The tank alone takes up most trunk space in a passenger car.
I drove a 12 passenger CNG vanpool van for 6 years. 52 mile roundtrip on the lovely, delightful 405 in Los Angeles. If I never see the 405 again, I will die happy. CNG fill-up time was 7 to 10 minutes (time yourself on your next gasoline fill-up). Filled up every other day as it could only get about 120 miles on a tank full. Major pain in the butt filling up every other day. Then there was the issue of filling stations: had one at work (a major university), one halfway home but 15 minutes off of our route, and one in the city where we lived but 15-20 minutes from my home. Those were the filling station options – three in a heavily populated 26 miles, with two considerably out of the way. The infrastructure for vehicular CNG is minimal, to be generous. The inconvenience involved with fill-up and the short mileage per tank-full will never make it popular, so doubtful there will be much infrastructure improvement. One positive: I can say it provided plenty of power to take the hills above LA. Did I worry about the high pressure? Yep. I always kept a wee bit of distance during fill-up as l have personally responded to accidents involving high pressure explosions (but in much smaller quantities). Even a small pressure vessel failure can cause a lot of damage.