Can Emissions Be Reduced Using Latent Heat of Methane in LNG Powered Heavy Vehicles?

Abstract

Liquid natural gas-powered vehicles store liquid natural gas fuel on board. When the gasification of this fuel is maintained, cooling down of the the vehicle cabin can be provided. In this study, the theoretical calculation of the savings that can be achieved if this process is done with an appropriate tool is emphasized. Since diesel fuel is used in heavy vehicles, diesel is taken as reference fuel in the calculations. How much methane is needed by the heavy vehicles that operate at various consumption values is calculated fist, then how much LNG should be evaporated for this need is found, and then, what amount of cooling this evaporating LNG could provide is computed. The results are presented in tabular form. It is seen that the proposed system can provide fuel savings with sufficient cooling, and therefore reduce emissions, especially in the vehicles mentioned.