Energy

Engine propulsion

Natural gas is increasingly more and more successful as a fuel for vehicles. Today in the world there are millions of vehicles that work thanks to natural gas and car manufacturers are investing more and more resources in the design of new natural gas-based models.
Natural gas has a series of advantages as compared to the other fuels used in the engine propulsion sector: it burns in a clean way, costs less, it is safe and it is an abundant and safe energy source. 
Italy can count on the widest supply of methane for motor propulsion in the European Union.

Methane system
The methane system for engine propulsion is simple. Vehicles are usually built to be supplied both with methane and petrol. The methane is put into bottles (located on the vehicle) in a “compressed” gaseous state, at high pressure (200 bar). The methane gets, through special pipes, to a reducer that supplies the injectors of internal combustion engines at low pressure. A pressure sensor sends the signal to the methane-quantity indicator and to the electric board that controls the fuel injectors and the bottle opening/closure valves. The vehicle is provided with a methane-petrol commuter that can be activated at any time.
The vehicle usually works with methane, but if, while running, the gas pressure inside the bottles is lower than the minimum pressure, the engine electronic control automatically converts the functioning to petrol. Once the petrol has been supplied, the bottle pressure is restored and the car starts to work with methane.
In order to guarantee the maximum reduction of exhaust emissions, methane vehicles must use an adequate catalyser to eliminate residual hydrocarbons deriving from the methane combustion. In fact, the methane oxides have more difficulty to oxidize than hydrocarbons and therefore it is necessary to adopt a catalyser characterized by a higher quantity of noble metals (which act as catalysers) than the most standard catalysers.