Evaluation of the Amazon Forest Low Methane Natural Gas for vehicular applications

Natural gas (NG) produced in the north of Brazil (Amazon Forest) has low methane and high nitrogen and therefore does not meet current NG specifications for vehicular use, as established by ANP (National Petroleum Agency).

This paper reports the steps for NG conversion kit adjustments and also the results and comparisons of vehicle performance, emissions and fuel economy tests on a chassis dynamometer. The vehicles were tested with different fuels like regular NG, Amazon Forest NG, gasoline and ethanol.

Also reported on this paper is an overview of the Brazilian NG fleet, present and future emission legislation, fuel specification, new trends on NGV (Natural Gas Vehicle) market and conversion kit technologies.