Replacing diesel with liquefied natural leads to a fuel economy of up to 60%

"The biggest benefits, both in terms of pollution

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reductions and in prices of the fuels being discussed herein, are perceived in São Paulo and Campinas, which are regions with greater potential for substituting diesel oil with LNG and where diesel oil is more expensive than it is in the rest of the State. Our results show that in São Paulo, LNG can be up to 60% cheaper than diesel oil," said Dominique Mouette, Professor in the School of Arts, Sciences, and Humanities at the University of São Paulo (EACH-USP), in an RCGI press communiqué. Mouette is principal author of the article and leader of the RCGI project focusing on the viability of a Blue Corridor in São Paulo State.

The objective of the study, which resulted in an article published in Science of The Total Environment, was to evaluate the economic and environmental benefits of substituting diesel oil with LNG for the purpose of establishing a Blue Corridor in the state. This concept appears in Russia and designates routes on which trucks use LNG instead of diesel oil.

LNG is obtained by cooling natural gas to minus 163 °C. Gas is condensed so that its volume is reduced up to 600 times, making it possible to be transported using cryogenic carts to places located far from oil ducts.

To analyze the substitution of diesel with LNG, the investigation considered four scenarios. "Within the best scenario, the use of LNG would reduce fuel costs by up to 40%; equivalent CO2 emissions [a measure used to compare the potential heating effect among several greenhouse gases (GHGs), also known as CO2-eq] by 5.2%; particulate materials by 88%; nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 75%; and would eliminate hydrocarbon emissions," states Pedro Gerber Machado, a researcher at the University of São Paulo's Institute of Energy and Environment and coauthor of the article.

https://phys.org/news/2019-05-diesel-liquefied-natural-fuel-economy.html