The effect of important parameters on the natural gas vehicles driving range

One of the most important issues regarding Natural Gas Vehicles (NGVs) is the Driving Range, which is defined as capability of a NGV to travel a certain distance after each refueling. The Driving Range is a serious obstacle in the development and growth of NGVs. Thus the necessity of studying the effects of various parameters on the Driving Range could be realized. It is found that the on-board storage capacity and the natural gas heating value have the greatest effect on the Driving Range. The charged mass of NGV cylinders is varied due to the natural gas composition and the final in-cylinder values (temperature and pressure). Underfilling of NGV cylinders, during charging operations, is a result of the elevated temperature which occurs in the NGV storage cylinder, due to compression and other processes could be overcome by applying extensive over-pressurization of the cylinder during the fuelling operation. Here, the effects of the most important parameters on the Driving Range have been investigated. The parameters are natural gas composition, engine efficiency and final NGV on-board in-cylinder temperature and pressure. It is found that, the composition has big effects on the Driving Range. The results also show that as final in-cylinder pressure decreases (or temperature increases), the Driving Range will be increased.