Compressed Natural Gas as an Alternative Vehicular Fuel in Tanzania: Implementation, Barriers, and Prospects
Abstract
:1. Introduction
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- The technical performance of technologies employed to convert gasoline- and diesel-fueled vehicles to use CNG in Tanzania’s road transportation sector is assessed.
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- The economic savings as a result of retrofitting conventional vehicles to use CNG are evaluated in order to understand their payback characteristics in Tanzania’s road transportation sector.
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- The social, technological, economic, and regulatory barriers that are still in place in the country as well as the prospects of NGV development are highlighted.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Area
2.2. The Types of Road Vehicles under Conversion
3. Implementation
3.1. Technologies for Conversion of Vehicles to NGVs
3.2. Technical Performance of NGVs
3.3. Economic Assessment of Conversion to NGVs
3.3.1. Conversion Cost, CC
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- All costs are computed in TZS and USD currencies as of June 2022.
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- The fuel costs refer to the Dar es Salaam region.
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- An NG substitution ratio of 70% is used for all dual fuel vehicles.
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- Table 1 indicates the properties of fuels used in the current study.
3.3.2. Fuel Cost Saving, FCsaving
3.3.3. Payback, PB
4. Results and Discussions
4.1. Technical Performance of NGVs
4.2. Economic Assessment of NGVs
5. Barriers to Widespread Adoption of NGVs in Tanzania
5.1. Social Barriers
5.2. Financial Barriers
5.3. Technical Barriers
5.4. Regulatory Barriers
6. Prospects of NGVs in Tanzania
6.1. Increase Public Awareness
6.2. Introduce Policies to Encourage Shifting to NGVs
7. Conclusions and Recommendations
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- The technologies for converting gasoline and diesel engines of road vehicles used in Tanzania’s transportation sector have been successfully implemented through the use of sequential conversion kits integrated with either Type 1 or Type 2 CNG cylinders.
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- The technical analyses of gasoline retrofitted NGVs indicated an average mileage of 100 to 500 km per CNG filling, depending on the CNG cylinder size, and the mileage decreased with increasing engine capacity. The NGVs attained significant engine enhancement, ranging between 1.9 and 3.9, indicating that more mileage could be covered on CNG. In terms of fuel savings, NGVs can save between 71 and 78% of gasoline fuel, with insignificant effects on vehicle applications. With a proportion of 30:70 diesel-CNG fuel, the NGV (heavy-duty truck) could reach 1300 km, saving about 440 L, which is 78.6%. For a medium passenger car with 30:70 diesel-CNG fuel, 15 kg of CNG could reach 350 km, with fuel savings of about 75%.
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- On the economic side, gasoline retrofitted NGVs cost about 50 to 200 km TZS/km, depending on the size of the CNG cylinder. This presents a fuel cost saving of up to 79%. After retrofitting to NGVs, gasoline vehicles start to pay off between 2 and 7 months or 10,000 and 40,000 km, depending on the engine capacity. Considering dual fuel, the heavy-duty truck consumes about 496 TZS/km while saving about 62.3% of diesel fuel. Additionally, the vehicles could start to pay off after 2.5 months or 29,304 km.
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- Lack of proper information regarding socio–technical–economic benefits of NGVs, exclusion of NG as a vehicular fuel in existing policies, rigid and outdated policies, lack of dedicated bodies to promote NGVs, and financial difficulties are among the barriers hindering the wide penetration of NGVs in Tanzania.
8. Future Works
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Nomenclature
%Fsaving,i | percentage of fuel saved for vehicle with category i CNG (L) |
Cc,i,j | conversion cost for vehicle with category i and cylinder size j (TZS) |
FCCNG | amount of petrol that is equivalent to CNG consumed during driving (L) |
Fcons | fuel consumption (kg/km) |
Fpetrol | amount of petrol consumed during driving (L) |
Fcutdown | diesel fuel cut down when using dual fuel (L) |
Fdiesel | diesel fuel used during driving (L) |
Fenh | engine fuel enhancement (dimensionless) |
Fsaving | petrol fuel saved by running the vehicle on CNG (L) |
MiCNG | vehicle mileage when driving on CNG (km) |
Midual | vehicle mileage when driving on dual fuel (km) |
Mipetrol | vehicle mileage when driving on petrol (km) |
PB | payback |
PBd,i,j | payback distance for vehicle with category i and cylinder type j (km) |
PBp,i,j | payback period for vehicle with category i and cylinder type j (months) |
QCNG | total amount of CNG consumed during driving (kg) |
SCNG-idle | engine speed when running on CNG during idle mode (km/h) |
Sdrop-idle | drop in engine speed during idle mode (km/h) |
Spetrol-idle | engine speed when running on petrol during idle mode (km/h) |
NG | natural gas |
NGV | natural gas vehicle |
Subscripts | |
c | conversion |
CNG | compressed natural gas |
cons | consumption |
cutdown | fuel cutdown |
dual | dual fuel |
enh | enhancement |
i | vehicle category |
j | cylinder type |
saving | saving |
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Fuels | Flammability Range | Density kg/m3 | Ignition Temp. °C | Energy/Kilogram MJ/kg | Energy/Liter MJ/L |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Natural gas | 5.0–15.0% | 0.70 | 628 | 53.6 | 38.9 |
Gasoline | 1.4–7.6% | 3.00 | 333 | 46.4 | 34.2 |
Diesel | 4.0–7.5% | 3.00 | 333 | 45.4 | 34.6 |
Engine Capacities | Vehicles Applications | dmax,CNG (km) | FCpetrol (km/L) | FCCNG (km/kg) | %FCsaving |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
500–2499 cc | Home-to-office | 180–280 | 9.5–10 | 15–25 | 70.1–70.9 |
Small enterprises and online taxis | 200–330 | 11–13 | 18–28 | 70.5–72.5 | |
2500–3500 cc | Home-to-office | 140–160 | 2.5–3.0 | 5.5–13 | 74.7–75.8 |
Small enterprises and online taxis | 150–170 | 4.5–6.0 | 8.0–15 | 77.6–80.9 |
Vehicle Type | FCdiesel | FCdual | Mi,diesel (diesel) | Mi,dual (Dual Fuel) | Fenh | Fuel Saving |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fortuner | 7 km/L | 16 km/kg | 150 km | 350 km | 2.33 | 75% |
HOWO | 2 km/L | 8 km/L | 325 km | 1300 km | 4 | 62.3% |
Engine Capacity | Conversion Cost (TZS) | ||
---|---|---|---|
Engine Cylinders | Engine Capacity, cc | 11 kg CNG Cylinder | 17 kg CNG Cylinder |
3–4 cylinders | 600–1900 | 2.0 million | N/A |
1900–2900 | 2.0 million | 2.7 million | |
2000–2990 | 2.5 million | 2.7 million | |
6 cylinders | 2000–3000 | 3.0 million | 3.5 million |
3100–4000 | 3.0 million | 3.7 million | |
8 cylinders | 4000–4700 | 3.0 million | 3.5 million |
4 cylinders | 3000–3300 | 3.5 million | 3.7 million |
6 cylinders | 3100–4000 | 3.5 million | 3.7 million |
8 cylinders | 4000–4700 | 4.0 million | 4.0 million |
Vehicle Type | Ckm,diesel | Ckm,dual | FCsaving | % FCsaving | PBp | PBd |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FORTUNER | 436 | 66.42 | 369.57 | 84.8% | 7 months | 35,000 km |
HOWO | 1526 | 214.6 | 1311.4 | 85.9 | 2.5 months | 29,304 km |
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Gerutu, G.B.; Greyson, K.A.; Chombo, P.V. Compressed Natural Gas as an Alternative Vehicular Fuel in Tanzania: Implementation, Barriers, and Prospects. Methane 2023, 2, 66-85. https://doi.org/10.3390/methane2010006
Gerutu GB, Greyson KA, Chombo PV. Compressed Natural Gas as an Alternative Vehicular Fuel in Tanzania: Implementation, Barriers, and Prospects. Methane. 2023; 2(1):66-85. https://doi.org/10.3390/methane2010006
Chicago/Turabian StyleGerutu, Gerutu Bosinge, Kenedy Aliila Greyson, and Pius Victor Chombo. 2023. "Compressed Natural Gas as an Alternative Vehicular Fuel in Tanzania: Implementation, Barriers, and Prospects" Methane 2, no. 1: 66-85. https://doi.org/10.3390/methane2010006
APA StyleGerutu, G. B., Greyson, K. A., & Chombo, P. V. (2023). Compressed Natural Gas as an Alternative Vehicular Fuel in Tanzania: Implementation, Barriers, and Prospects. Methane, 2(1), 66-85. https://doi.org/10.3390/methane2010006