Liquid gas - A cheaper car-fuel alternative that's already on the road

There is another alternative for vehicles that is here now, but little known - liquid petroleum gas, or LPG.

By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
filling gas 88 (photo credit: )
filling gas 88
(photo credit: )
Alternative fuels are beginning to take off worldwide. Ethanol, soy, biodiesel, algae, are all either on the streets or being researched for their potential to produce fuel. Hybrid cars abound, mixing gasoline and electricity. And the electric car is supposedly just a few years away. But there is another alternative for vehicles that is here now, but little known - liquid petroleum gas, or LPG. Right now, there are about 20,000 cars in Israel that run on LPG, but you'd never know it to look at them. That's because you can convert many regular cars to LPG, Gaspro CEO Udi Tamir explained to The Jerusalem Post this week. Converting to LPG has two main advantages. First, LPG pollutes far less than gasoline or diesel. Emissions vary from model to model, but there is no question it is much lower, Tamir said. Second, a liter of LPG is about half the price of a liter of gasoline. For instance, when gasoline was NIS 6.70 a liter, LPG was NIS 3.50, he said. The conversion process takes about a day and runs between NIS 7,500 to NIS 8,500. A steel tank is installed in the trunk and a sophisticated system is installed in the engine. There are varying sizes of tanks ranging from 35 to 100 liters. Gaspro imports three different types of systems, but their main supplier is Lovato. They don't take out the regular gasoline tank or damage anything else, they just add a second fueling system. Generally, cars built after 1995 are amenable to conversion, though not all makes and models are, Tamir said. The tanks do take up a fair amount of trunk space, although Gaspro's engineers have managed in some models to keep the full trunk space by putting the tank in the spot for the spare tire and building a compartment for the spare tire underneath the car, Tamir said. Gaspro was established in 2002. They are the in-house converter for Subaru as well as several leasing companies, and they've run pilot projects for Cellcom and Bezeq. "We do the conversions, we import the gas, and we run 42 refueling stations all over the country," Tamir said. While 42 stations is not that many, Tamir contended that it was enough because most people refuel at only a few stations anyway, even though there are hundreds of gas stations. Filling up the tank takes the same amount of time as gasoline or diesel, he said. According to various car Web sites, there are about another 35 LPG stations run by other companies like Dor Alon and Amisragas. A customer service representative of Amisragas said their Autogas network consisted of four refueling stations. Worldwide, LPG-powered cars are a growing trend. Tamir estimated there were about 20 million around the world, with particularly fast growth in the Far East and Europe. In Israel, since it's relatively unknown, there is a lot of potential for growth, he said. An NRG article from the end of 2005 stated that there were 300 LPG-powered cars on the road and 20 refueling stations. Three years later, there are 20,000 cars and around 80 refueling stations. "I welcome competitors. The more competition, the more people hear about gas, the more conversions we will do. There is a lot of room for growth in this market," Tamir declared. There is no doubt that there are certain drawbacks to LPG from an environmental perspective. LPG is a crude oil byproduct and therefore not sustainable. In addition, it is still a pollutant. However, it's cleaner than gasoline and converting one's car is still cheaper than buying a hybrid. Tamir said it takes about four years to make back the initial investment in converting. Eli Azoulai, who has been driving a converted car for about a year and a half, told the Post there wasn't much difference in the driving experience between LPG and gasoline. "There isn't much difference while driving. You do need to drive a fair number of kilometers to justify the initial investment. But there aren't a lot of repairs," he said. Azoulai, who works for the Golana packing company, was waiting for his company car to be fixed at Gaspro's shop in the Subaru complex in Herzliya. Tamir said that gas is a little less efficient than gasoline so you would probably get a bit worse mileage. "If a regular car gets say ten kilometers per liter, with gas you get nine kilometers per liter," he said. Tamir explained the mechanics of the system. "When you turn on the car for the first time that day, or after it's been sitting for awhile, it uses the benzene to heat up the gas from liquid to gas form. That takes about a minute. Then it switches to gas for the entire time. "There is an option to switch to the benzene tank if you run out of gas. The car beeps and then switches to benzene. However, with our network of stations, there really isn't any need. I drive 97% of the time on gas," he said. Regarding safety, Tamir claimed it was actually safer than gasoline. "First of all, the tank itself is steel. I had a Subaru Impreza in which had been in an accident and was a total loss. A car plowed into it from behind but stopped when it hit the steel tank. The driver said he was never so glad he had converted to gas at that moment. "In addition, there is an automatic system which gradually releases the gas from the tank in the event of an accident, so there are never any of those explosions which sometimes happen with regular cars," he said.