U.S.S.R. PUSHES CNG, LNG AS MOTOR FUEL

The Soviet Union is mounting another campaign to hike use of compressed and liquefied natural gas in cars, trucks, and buses.

At the same time it is stepping up research aimed at converting aircraft to operate on liquefied petroleum gas. Last year, the Soviet airline Aeroflot was forced to refuse transportation to 25 million would-be passengers because of aviation fuel shortages.

Moscow's latest effort to promote use of gas based fuel is being pushed with more urgency than ever before. Increasingly frequent shortages of gasoline and diesel fuel have been reported in many parts of the country during the last 2 years.

Past proposals to use hydrogen as vehicle fuel are being downplayed. So, apparently, are earlier plans for major expansion in production of methanol for automotive fuel.

The Soviets see wider use of CNG and LNG as a quick way to reduce demand for gasoline and diesel fuel. But they emphasize that without broad international cooperation the U.S.S.R.'s most advanced technology for gas powered vehicles cannot be widely applied very soon.

MOTOR FUEL PROGRAM

The U.S.S.R.'s last 5 year plan for economic development set a goal of 1 million vehicles powered by CNG or LNG by 1990. But results fell far short of target.

Under the 1986-90 plan, 500,000 trucks and buses with carburetor and diesel engines were to be converted to burn CNG. About 800 large and 700 small permanent gas fuel service stations were to be built, along with 700 movable gas fuel service facilities.

The Soviets now hope to increase the number of gas fueled vehicles to nearly 2 million by the end of the century. They estimate that achievement of this objective would save 15 million metric tons/year (300,000 b/d) of gasoline and reduce toxic omissions by half or more.

In 1990, the U.S.S.R. had 320,000 vehicles operating on gas fuel, about half of them trucks and buses. It built a network of service stations for these vehicles that covers much of the European part of the Soviet Union and some districts in the Ural and Central Asian regions of the nation.

CONVENTIONAL FUEL DEFICIT

The Moscow newspaper Izvestia emphasized the need to assign a higher priority to use of CNG and LNG as motor fuel.

"We are already experiencing a serious deficit in motor fuel derived from crude oil," Izvestia declared. It added that all indications are that the situation will worsen.

"According to official estimates," Izvestia said, "we produced 50 million metric tons (1 million b/d) less crude than planned during 1990. By 1995, Soviet crude and condensate flow is expected to fall to 10 million b/d instead of the originally planned 13.6 million b/d.

"Meanwhile, we produced 815 billion cu m (28.77 tcf) of natural gas last year. When it is considered that 1 million vehicles operated on gas fuel would require only 10-12 billion cu m (353-424 bcf)/year, we can confidently assert that there is more than enough gas available to cover our energy deficits."

Soviet experience shows that operating costs for medium size trucks using CNG are in many cities less than half as much as for the same vehicles using "conventional fuel." Medium size trucks can travel about 250 km (155 miles) on a fillup.

Gas has been used as a motor fuel in the U.S.S.R. since the end of World War 11, although natural gas production then was very small. In 1946, gas fueled cars raced from Berlin to Moscow via Kiev.

At the same time, a number of Soviet trucks were equipped with Russian and foreign equipment to operate on gas. But the program to greatly expand use of gas fuel was deemphasized after discovery of huge western Siberian crude oil reserves in the early 1960s.

Izvestia said serious work on the problem of gas motor fuels didn't resume until the early 1980s.

It added that interest in using CNG and LNG for vehicles should be heightened next September by a long distance race of gas fueled automobiles starting in Moscow, traveling through western Europe, and ending in Kiev.

Purpose of the race is to demonstrate the economic advantages of gaseous fuel as well as to promote international cooperation in reducing the amount of environmental pollution (OGJ, Mar. 18, p. 133).

AIRCRAFT FUEL

Two years ago, Izvestia said, the Soviets built the world's first airliner that operated on LNG. It said tests carried out with the Tupolev Tu-155 showed that gas can be a serious competitor to kerosine jet fuel, providing greater economy and less pollution.

The Tupolev plant is building a new version of gas fuel transport aircraft, the Tu-204. Similar work is being carried out on the Ilyushin 11-114, Yak-40, Yak-42, and "the world's first experimental helicopter using LPG fuel."

The widely used Soviet Mi-8 helicopter has been modified to use gas fuel. It requires no special equipment and can be fueled and serviced at conventional air bases, the newspaper reported.

A Soviet locomotive using gas fuel has been tested.

The Moscow weekly Ekonomika i Zbizn (Economics and Life) says development of dual fuel aircraft using conventional aviation fuel and natural gas should be carried out as quickly as possible. It said tests have shown the big advantages of employing a propane/butane fuel mixture for aircraft operating in areas such as western Siberia, the Volga-Ural region, and PreCaspian districts.

A dual fuel aircraft using propane/butane and conventional aviation fuel could not only be placed in service faster than planes operating on previously tested liquid hydrogen but would require far fewer changes in the present air transport system, Ekonomika i Zbizn said. "Capital costs for hydrogen fuel would be many times higher, with a much larger area required for refueling facilities than for propane/butane fuel."

Production of propane/butane fuel could easily be developed where there are resources for their production, the newspaper continued.

"It would only require construction of extremely simple and inexpensive gas fractionating installations. Net capital investment for these facilities would not exceed 3-5 rubles/ton of raw product.

"There is a centrally located gas fractionating plant with a capacity of 3 million metric tons/year in the western Siberian city of Tobolsk. Plans call for increasing its capacity to 4.5-6 million tons/year.

"Organization of propane/butane production in areas of western Siberia's big oil producing centers of Surgut and Nizhnevartovsk on the middle Ob River and Urengoi, hub of the world's largest gas producing district on the Arctic Circle, presents no special difficulties and can, if necessary, be accomplished quickly.

"A gas association-'Aviagaz'-must be established to include designers, petroleum producers, users, banks, and possibly providers of foreign capital."