| This thesis explores economic and environmental benefits generated by natural gas use in transportation. The analysis of natural gas vehicles and compressed natural gas markets is performed for the US and worldwide with an emphasis on the leaders in the industry. The US market is analyzed in detail to report current state of technology and fueling infrastructure countrywide. Vehicles and equipment supply, prices, and performance are reported to acknowledge the reader and to contrast the US NGV market with other markets worldwide. Also, prices of the natural gas technology are being discussed to explain principal differences and uniqueness of the market particularly in the US compared with other nations.;The thesis analyzes emissions impact of natural gas in comparison to other alternative fuels available on the market. To reveal hidden costs of energy, a life-cycle emission approach is used to quantify emissions starting from a stage of fuel extraction up to a stage of fuel processing in a vehicle. The GREET model is used to quantify of greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants for variety of fuels, including natural gas, electricity, hydrogen, biodiesel, etc., using cleanest fuel production pathways. The thesis also includes the relative emissions of natural gas compared to other alternative and conventional fuels.;This work summarizes practical experience gained by successful NGV users and applies this information to perform a cost-benefit analysis for seven actual fleets operating in Wyoming. A major objective of the cost-benefit analysis is to emphasize the diversity of applications where natural gas provides significant fuel cost and environmental benefits and to provide examples when natural gas fails to succeed due to low benefits and high costs. This analysis shows that there is no general rule that could be applied to all fleets; rather, each case needs to be analyzed separately to identify fleet-specific costs and benefits. Results of the analysis support earlier findings that heavy-duty fleets, such as transit buses, heavy-duty trucks, refuse collection fleets, and school buses remain the best candidates for natural gas conversion due to a low fuel economy, and moderately big annual mileage. |
