Converting cars to LPG Autogas

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» Home » transport » Converting cars to LPG Autogas

Converting cars to LPG Autogas
By Green Living Tips \| Published 11/18/2006 \| transport , energy

LPG (Autogas) fuel conversions As much as I'd love to drive a hybrid, pure electric or biodiesel powered vehicle, I'm stuck with petrol (gas) vehicles for the time being. It's something that really bugged me; not only the environmental aspects, but the amount of blood that's been spilled over black gold. Personally, I'm all for going back to the horse and cart, walking or biking. I do little (none) of the latter, purely because as far as I'm concerned, cars and bikes on the same bit of tar do not mix :). Up until recently, I had glossed over the possibility of converting the car to LPG . LPG stands for Liquefied Petroleum Gas - a mixture of butane and propane. LPG is produced during crude oil refinement, or is extracted from oil or natural gas seams. It's often referred to as autogas in other countries A conversion seemed pretty costly and I've never owned vehicles I've kept for long enough to recoup the cost. I also wasn't aware of any environmental benefits of LPG. The Australian Government recently announced a subsidy for LPG conversions, so I took another look at the option, and was very pleasantly surprised. Not only is LPG around half the price of petrol currently, but it also generates 15% less carbon dioxide and 20% less other harmful gases when combusted. LPG is particularly efficient in comparison to petrol in relation to cold engines - which is the situation when taking shorter journeys or even when you're embarking on a longer journey. LPG also evaporates quickly if spilled, so there's no risk of earth/water contamination. LPG engines are also quieter, so less noise pollution. Yes, it's a fossil fuel and yes it's not a real green, earth-friendly solution, but if I can cut back on what my vehicle spews into the atmosphere; I guess it's better than taking no action at all. Let's call it a small step among many. The new system took a little while to settle in, but the only downside we've really found is the amount of space the LPG tank takes up - about 100 litres of space; luckily we have a large boot (trunk) :). The photo is a little misleading, still plenty of room in there. Have you had your car converted to LPG Autogas? What are your thoughts? If you have any questions about LPG conversions, please also post those below. Michael Bloch Green Living Tips.com Article reproduction guidelines Comments Comment #1 (Posted by Sree) Go to India...LPG has taken over Petrol for a decade now. While i was living in India, i was contemplating to use LPG in my vehicle, and it was sooo inexpensive to convert and the cost of LPG is much less, and pollutants are not as much. The entire Cab (Taxi) market in India has moved onto LPG or CNG...no one drives on Petrol. A city like Delhi (National Capital of India) was really bad with pollutants in the air 10 yrs ago., visible to the naked eye. There was a policy decision by the Govt. to remove public vehicles aged more than 10 yrs out of the roads and huge push to move to LPG or CNG...2 yrs later, the city turned clean, green and lively. It is a huge case study. And for Americans...let's look at some of the facts. US uses 240 Million Gallons of Petroleum/GAS per day...while today India uses approximately 20 Million Gallons of Petroeum products. India's population is 3.5 times that of US, and it's per-capita income is 1/15th of US. India's petroleum/Petrol/GAS cost is about 2 times that of US...obviously, India has made progress...while US has gone backwards...lifestyle gas-guzzler cars/trucks and lack of procedures for public to convert their existing cars to other means of Green combustibles, inexpensive gas availability (i am talking of SF/CA, where i live today with $4/gallon) is not helping the world. Bush goes to kill people for Black Gold...and does nothing fiscally responsible to educate the masses here to cut consumption by atleast 10%...which will fuel 1.2 Billion population in other parts of the world. Comment #2 (Posted by Robert) I'm have trouble finding anyone who will do the conversion for me. I've found several sights explaining how it's done, but I don't feel comfortable doing it myself. Who did you conversion? Comment #3 (Posted by Michael - Green Living Tips) Sree; thanks for sharing those thoughts. Robert, I'm based in Australia and I'm guessing you're in the USA; so I couldn't really recommend anyone. There's a long waiting list here in Australia for getting it done since the government started offering the conversion rebate. I remember waiting for the rebate to come in effect and then immediately booking in - lucky I did as just a couple of days later; most LPG converters were booked solid for the next 6 months. Comment #4 (Posted by Sherwin Delfin) It's over a year now. Any new findings? What about "health risks?" There are still a lot of people who believe that it's a health risk for the driver and for the passengers when their car runs on LPG (autogas). Did your health deteriorate because of using autogas? Comment #5 (Posted by Michael - Green Living Tips) Hi Sherwin, thanks for your interest. The LPG system is still running nicely. One of the only issues we found when the new system was being run in is that if you turn the ignition on too fast before the pump (or whatever) has engaged and finished its cycle, the car will fire up, then stall and can be a bit of a hassle to restart. We were getting frustrated by the issue but found that by waiting for the normal "zzzzzzzzzzzt" noise to finish before turning the ignition key all the way, which is only a second, it starts perfectly every time. As you can tell from my description; I'm no mechanic and I have a feeling the mechanic who installed the system actually warned us about that and how to get around the problem - we simply forgot the instruction ;). As for health and safety issues, we've had no problems whatsoever and we're very happy to have opted for the LPG system - the only time we curse it a bit is if the family is taking a long trip because the LPG cylinder takes up a fair chunk of room; but that's only been once or twice it's been an issue in the 1.5 years the autogas system has been installed. Comment #6 (Posted by Don Somers) In 1971 when the Arabs first turned off the spigots, Americans were getting gas on alternate days and only in limited amounts. Long lines at gas stations.I was in the taxicab business with about fifteen cars and my own fuel storage.We were having difficulty with economy and performance due to the air pumps and other mandated devices on these cars.(Checkers with GM250 6 cyl)I converted one vehicle to straight LPG and ran it 24/7 to pile up the miles. At the time, gas was .55 and LP was .15cents per gallon. Fantastic success and we were required to run up our fleet to 56 cars over the next three years.Due to the savings, we kept our prices down while our competitors could not. We opposed every requested fare increase and even began to sell to campers and grill owners. HOWEVER-those cars did not have fuel injection or sophisticated ignition systems. I would personally complete the under-hood conversion in just over an hour.We had a 28 gal. tank in the trunk.The system was transferred to the replacement car after 36 months.I don't see LPG as viable in automobiles the US today unless the vehicle is designed for it-not a conversion-and certainly not "dual fuel". We discontinued its use when Checker discontinued production in 1982. As the Checkers were replaced with Chevrolets over the next three years, we had a lot of scrap. But by then, we owned all of the cabs anyway. My two cents worth. Comment #7 (Posted by Michael - Green Living Tips) Hi Don, thanks for sharing that information. Conversions have been pretty commonplace in Australia for years and I've not heard of range/degree of problems you mention. Maybe the US installers/kit makers could learn from our guys ;). Comment #8 (Posted by Michael Fierstos) The Netherlands converted to Natural Gas or perhaps AutoGas in the 1980's. It was a subsidized (government) conversion which seemed to have worked very well. The issue, I believe is simply that the US Government and Industrial base want to develop something unique; not accept a tried and true plan from others. I understand rather than a conversion to something as an initial step; many in the US want to go to Electric Cars or the ones that run off of water. The latter will leave millions of gasoline guzzlers on the road for the next 40 years or more. Those who can't afford a new electric car or even a conversion and those who don't care about the price of petrol (gasoline) to run their Hummers and high powered cars will not change. This must be addressed sooner than later. Submit Comment (reviewed before publishing)

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