So why are we so stupid?

Dubai to go green with 
unique natural gas plan Sajila Saseendran

23 February 2011 DUBAI — A unique model of pipeless natural gas fuel stations will be introduced in Dubai as part of its plans to implement a cost-effective and environment-friendly natural gas transportation solutions.

Government vehicles will first switch to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), followed by private cars in the emirate to reduce carbon emission and cut fuel costs, officials revealed on Tuesday after the Dubai Municipality (DM) unveiled its pilot project of converting five of its vehicles to use natural gas.

Emirates Gas (EMGAS), a member of the ENOC Group wholly owned by the Government of Dubai, has finalised a plan to build “mother, daughter and on-line stations” to supply CNG for the entire emirate, a senior official told Khaleej Times after the event.

“Our plan is already finalised. We are now in consultations with various government departments in Dubai to know the volume of gas required to be supplied. Once they decide how many of their vehicle fleets can be converted, we will go ahead with the procedures for infrastructure development,” said Hesham Ali Mustafa, General Manager of EMGAS.

“Dubai will have a unique model of supplying the natural gas. We have decided to have mother and daughter stations where in daughter stations will be supplied gas from the main mother station through a pipeless channel. We are doing this to minimise the interruptions on roads by laying pipes for gas supply. Eventually, we will also have a few on-line stations where we will have to use minimum length of pipes,” he said. The plan is to have 12 daughter stations which will basically be special filling depots for government 
departments. Mustafa said these stations will be supplied gas from the mother depot of EMGAS through trailers which will have a bank of cylinders that can be locked on to dispensers in daughter stations.

“I think we can expect one or two such depots within this year depending on the number of vehicles going for conversion,” he said.

DM is the first government department in Dubai to use CNG for cars.

The Roads and Transport Authority has introduced a fleet of CNG-powered abras and hybrid taxis. The government’s plan is to convert at least 25 per cent of the public transport vehicles to use natural gas. Once the government departments lead the way and spread awareness, the project will target private vehicles. “The daughter depots can also act as filling stations for private vehicles. It takes hardly Dh6,000 to Dh7,000 for converting a normal vehicle to use CNG.

But, the public can have great economic benefits out of it as CNG is more than 30 per cent cheaper than petrol. If somebody converts his car, he can get back the money he spent for it in less than a year,” said Mustafa.

He said Dubai’s government departments were striving to adopt environment friendly options for the transport sector on the directives of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai, to save the environment and boost tourism and economy.

Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director-General of Dubai Municipality, said the second phase of the DM project will see a total of 438 commercial and medium-sized vehicles of the municipality switching to natural gas.

“The project contributes to the economic benefit as it will achieve an estimated fuel saving of about Dh2.3 million a year in the event of converting 400 vehicles. It will also achieve significant environmental benefit by reducing the rate of carbon emissions by 70 per cent in each vehicle when using natural gas,” Lootah said.

Humaid Al Marri, Director of Transportation at DM, said the Transportation Department will work with its strategic partners to get the approvals required to become one of the officially approved bodies to convert vehicles to natural gas. Last month, Abu Dhabi announced plans to convert over 500 government vehicles and taxis to natural gas by the end of 2012


Buck

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Max on February 23, 2011 at 6:21
Enough money in the right pockets would do wonders for NG. 
Permalink Reply by JHH on February 23, 2011 at 16:37
we don't need no stinking government!
Permalink Reply by CypressKnees on February 24, 2011 at 3:59

Dear Sesport,

You really do good research! Thank you for this thoughtful, intelligent answer.

And the link!

 

"An increase of 88%"...Eighty-eight.

Permalink Reply by The_Baron on February 23, 2011 at 9:32

Lets be realistic.

 

There are ranches in west texas bigger than Dubai. The shear scale of building new infrastructure in this country will maen any transition away from gasoline will be slow at best.

 

There are tax rebates for cng cars, but the hinderance is a chiken or the egg type problem. People are reluctant to convert without plentiful refueling stations, but no one wants to build refueling stations without a strong customer base.

 

I believe you will see more short range, home based type fleets (like garbage trucks or busses) that can return to a central hub each day to refuel. The post office would be a good place to start. This article refers to Abu Dhabi (Yabba Dabba Doo.... sorry) converting 500 government vehicles, but that is really nothing but pr. There are probally way more 500 government vehicles in just the police departments of Shreveport and Bossier City.

Permalink Reply by P.G. on February 23, 2011 at 9:40

What would the market look like for NG if this nation's police and fire departments all switched to CNG? How much pressure would that take off of petroleum imports?

How much employment (jobs) would that create?

Permalink Reply by The_Baron on February 23, 2011 at 10:50

It would have to have an impact. Just imagine the post office. Their trucks drive down almost every mile of non-interstate roads six days a week!.  How many jobs? I would say probally not as much as you think, it would be good for drillers and operators, as well as royalty owners... but then again, it owuld be nice to keep our dollars here paying for American (and canadian & mexican) nat. gas.

 

But don't get too excited. Whos going to vote to spend big $$ to replace entire fleets right now? We will have to hope that  Governments will be forward looking enough to slowly replace with cng, like Shreveport and Bossier are doing now.

Permalink Reply by P.G. on February 23, 2011 at 12:57

I was thinking of the domino effect of employment for building all those vehicles as well as lowering the trade deficit for a product produced in house.

Probably a bigger bang for our stimulus bucks than a high speed railway, huh?

Then there's the savings of the lower cost fuel and vehicle maintenance..

Permalink Reply by JHH on February 23, 2011 at 12:00
Well, i just saw our Dear Leader make a statement (how many days after the fact) about Libya... the collapse of the Middle East and say absolutely nothing.  And we still have no energy policy... and it seems the foreign policy is less than nil as well.  I apologize in advance if this seems like a political statement.  It was not meant that way.
Permalink Reply by Gale Bagley on February 24, 2011 at 4:00
Our leaders, do we have any? We used to have a program, when our elected officials were not doing thier job, just vote them out, great idea. But now the new ones are just like the old ones in a few months. what is the answer?
Permalink Reply by The_Baron on February 24, 2011 at 8:24

maybe we need to start restricting who is allowed to vote again.

Stupid Voters=Stupid Elected Officials

Permalink Reply by Max on February 24, 2011 at 23:47
maybe we need to start restricting who is allowed to vote again.

Stupid Voters=Stupid Elected Officials

We could go back to the 1700's for voting rights. Only three requirements; Male, Free, and own at least 100 acres of land.
Permalink Reply by JHH on February 25, 2011 at 3:31

Mr Buckner...

I think..."So Why Are We So Stupid" ought to be a category all its own!

jhh

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