Tata Motors, Leyland to step on the gas for auto LNG

Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland will soon collaborate with Petronet LNG Ltd (PLL) to introduce the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for vehicles. PLL plans to introduce the retailing of LNG, as it is a cheaper and safer alternative to the cheapest existing fuel in the country: compressed natural gas (CNG).

The country’s biggest LNG importer, PLL, is in talks with CHART, a US-based manufacturer of LNG kits. “Today, technology has made it easier to start direct retailing of LNG for use. We have offered Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland to run a pilot at Petronet’s facilities around Dahej in Gujarat. They are keen to take it forward. An agreement will be entered and we will try to launch the pilot this calendar year,” A K Balyan, managing director and CEO of Petronet, told Business Standard.

To begin with, PLL will set up a pilot storage hub/filling station in the next few months in Gujarat, near the company’s terminal at Dahej. It will be like a CNG retailing outlet. Gujarat is a developed market for CNG with the presence of companies such as Gujarat Gas and Adani Gas. Imported natural gas is brought into the country in LNG form after it has been liquefied in the source country. Once it lands here, PLL regassifies it and sells it to city gas distributors for further sale in compressed form to vehicle owners.

CNG is fast gaining market share in the country, with the expansion of city gas infrastructure.

According to the website of Indraprastha Gas, the sole city gas distributor in Delhi, CNG is 36 per cent cheaper than diesel. Balyan said LNG would be even cheaper than CNG as the process of vapourising and compressing was not involved. "Vehicles can directly fill LNG instead of diesel or CNG and they can carry more fuel to travel long distances. In liquid form, the same tank can carry three times the CNG volume. CNG bullets are heavy and carry dead weight. Removal of that dead weight can improve mileage by up to a kilometre," he said.

LNG is also considered safer. Balyan said the technology was used commercially in developed countries. "We can do it here as well." LNG has been used as a clean burning alternative vehicle fuel in trucks, buses, waste collection trucks, and other vehicles in the US for more than 15 years.

PLL has started retailing CNG to bulk customers and now plans to do the same with LNG. Petronet is even planning to brand LNG.