cng station united kingdom

Type of fuel - source Government 24th Mar 2022

Rate

 

Petrol, diesel, biodiesel and bioethanol

52.95 p per litre

5p reduction in budget

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)

28.88 p per kg

 reduced in budget

Natural gas used as fuel in vehicles, for example biogas

22.57 p per kg

 reduced in budget

‘Fuel oil’ burned in a furnace or used for heating

9.78 p per litre

 reduced in budget

Transport Fuel Duty and Heating Fuel Duty

Firstly, looking at these tables, one wonders at the logic applied by those Civil Servants to arrive at such numbers? Was it a gallons to litres issue? Who can tell.

With the reduction of 5p on Petrol and Diesel it must be stressed that LPG, CNG and LNG powered vehicles already had a big advantage in respect of “fuel duty” and have further been slightly reduced in this year's budget too [see table]. With Natural gas /bio gas at less than 50% [42.6% in fact] of even the new Petrol/Diesel duty. Also LPG [Liquefied petroleum gas] is only 54.5% of the ‘normal’ [petrol/diesel] fuel duty.

Also please note the Bio-diesel and Bio-ethanol both attract FULL duty per litre. This makes little sense given the processes involved to create these fuels – although growing crops to make these is not ideal.

CNG Vehicles

CNG [Compressed Natural Gas], covers ‘North Sea’ gas and Gas from Europe and Russia. Methane gases or often found dissolved within oil deposits.  -  Also, the incidence of gas-flaring must stop – as it is a waste of natural resources.

CNG [Compressed Natural Gas], also encompasses recovered methane’s from sewage, land fill and Coal Mines. Normally, this methane would vent to the atmosphere. But to capture it and use it as road fuels needs to be put into context. Normal vehicle excise duty rating for these vehicles MUST account for the negative CO2 aspects of such recovered methane gases – which are thought to be 21-83 times more destructive in terms of the “Greenhouse-Effect” theory.

Therefore, in terms of CO2 emission – for bio-CNG vehicle these must be negative CO2 impacts. Thus, the excise duty should be zero at worst or even a payment to those vehicles using this fuel by the Government!

The UK has huge reserves of natural gas and a national distribution network that allows safe and easy access to these volumes of gas. Compressed natural gas - CNG - is natural gas extracted from the pipeline and compressed to a fraction of its volume, without losing any of its energy potential. CNG-fuelled trucks and buses can travel up to 350 miles between refuelling. CNG is an environmentally friendly and fundamentally economical fuel, which is currently best suited to the commercial vehicle sector; for example, local authority and private sector waste disposal vehicles, bus fleets and delivery trucks for large distribution chains.

The transport sector is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the UK. In 2019 it accounted for 34% of the UK's total greenhouse gases, of which 4.5% was attributed to HGV operations specifically. The five refuelling stations currently operated by CNG Fuels offer a low-carbon, low-cost alternative fuel source for HGV operators looking to make the switch from diesel. It will expand its strategic network with 14 new refuelling stations across the UK over the next two years, responding to an increase in demand for renewable fuel from major brands and facilitating a significant reduction of over 80% in carbon emissions from operating fleets.fuel duty

While the Government has committed to maintaining a clear advantage for gas vehicles until 2032, Bio-CNG will be favourably positioned in terms of fuel duty compared to diesel vehicles. This offers fleet operators a financial incentive to make the switch to CNG, gaining access to a fuel that is 35% to 40% cheaper.

There are currently 13 CNG filling stations in Britain open to the public. 

CNG Conversions

Cars can be converted to run on dual fuels, or solely on CNG. 

LPG Vehicles

LPG Conversions

Ideally a diesel car is the better option for conversion to LPG with many systems on the market – including many from Eastern European Nations.