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FuelMaker, the Honda-owned, Canada-based manufacturer of natural gas fueling systems for vehicles, went belly-up last week. The company made the only residential natural gas refueling product (called Phill) in the world.  

Fortunately for vehicle owners, Honda plans to sell the company’s assets and intellectual property, meaning FuelMaker products, albeit under a different name, are likely to remain available, says Alicia Milner, president of the Canadian Natural Gas Vehicle Alliance.

FuelMaker was born of automakers’ desire to address the public’s urge to break or at least lessen its addiction to fossil fuels. Car companies have increasingly turned to batteries, hydrogen, and solar power to energize new generations of vehicles. Less conspicuous in this shift to cleaner fuels has been natural gas, far cleaner burning than gasoline, and already the leading alternative fuel source for U.S. commercial fleets, powering about 10 percent of the mass transit buses in the U.S. and 5 percent of those in Canada, Milner says. The monthly consumption of natural gas by domestic vehicles has quadrupled the last decade as more vehicles have taken to the streets, according to the Energy Information Administration.

But despite their inroads and popularity overseas, natural gas-powered vehicles haven’t caught on in the U.S. consumer market, with the Honda Civic GX standing as the only natural gas-powered car currently available. First introduced for government sector work in 1998, Honda later made the Civic GX available for retail sales in California and New York. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has named the Civic GX the "greenest vehicle" sold in the U.S. for six years running, though Honda only makes around 1,000 of them annually.  

The classic chicken-or-the-egg problem of too few fueling stations has hindered the Civic GX and other alternative energy-powered vehicles. A paucity of places to fuel up makes a purchase less attractive to a potential buyer, meaning fewer cars sold, lessening need for more fueling stations, and so on. The Civic GX gets about 33 miles (53 kilometers) per gallon of compressed natural gas (CNG), giving it about a 170 mile- (275 kilometer-) range on a full tank, and it is cheaper to refill than a gas tank. But having to carefully plan an outing based on CNG refueling locations presents a hassle for drivers.  

The at-home fueling option introduced via the Phill was meant to break that cycle by tapping into a home’s natural gas line. However, the unit’s price tag including installation of about $5,000 and the 12 hours it takes to refill the CNG tank gave eco-conscious auto shoppers all the more reason to plunk down on a gas-electric hybrid instead.

The price of the Phill may come down in price as another entity picks up FuelMaker’s pieces and continues with production, Milner says. Clean Energy Fuels – T. Boone Pickens’ natural gas distributing company – had been in talks with Honda about buying FuelMaker, but couldn’t reach a deal, reports the New York Times.

Milner predicts that companies looking to green their commercial fleets will increasingly turn to natural gas. Just last month, AT&T announced plans to spend $350 million to buy 8,000 Ford Motor Company vans and trucks and convert them to CNG-fueled vehicles, and to build 40 new CNG stations. The company’s move is "the single largest commitment ever by a U.S. corporation toward using alternative fueled vehicles," TG Daily, a technology Web site, writes.

A mass transit bus that runs on compressed natural gas, Image Credit: EPA

7 Comments

1. 1. mcarey81 10:14 AM 4/10/09

   My father in-law owns one of the Honda Civic CNG cars. It is a great car. He uses it as his commute vehicle in Oklahoma. Because of the fuel savings, he will save the cost of the car in 5 years! (even with the lower gasoline prices because CNG prices dropped at the same time)
   
   I have driven it; it drives exactly the same as a regular car. There is a huge demand for these Civics in Oklahoma. But there are also enough CNG refueling stations so you don't have to have a home filling station. I live in Ohio where there aren't enough fueling stations to make it possible for me to try to get a CNG car, but I would buy a CNG car right away if I moved to Oklahoma!
   
   Sign up and support the Pickens Plan (which includes wind energy and CNG cars) at www.pickensplan.com. If we all work together, we can decrease our dependence on oil from countries we can't depend on, we can make our world a cleaner place, and get global warming under control!

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2. 2. ke5jk 02:11 PM 4/17/09

   One detail that I never see mentioned about CNG vehicles is that, in addition to water and heat, the vehicles also emit CO2. Until just recently CO2 was not designated as a polutant, even though it is a significan greenhouse gas. But that has now changed: the Environmental Protection Agency declared 17 April 2009 that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are a significant threat to human health and thus will be listed as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. How will this affect CNG vehicles' designation as "zero emission" vehicles?

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3. 3. jelutz77 in reply to mcarey81 04:59 PM 7/4/09

   I live in Ohio too. I'd love to buy one of these, if I can refill at my house in a matter of minutes. The 12 hour refill time on the Phill device resulted from a lack of a storage tank, I'm sure. Placed underground, this tank would be a minimal fire hazard.

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4. 4. jelutz77 in reply to ke5jk 05:03 PM 7/4/09

   Yes, CNG vehicles, as well as gasoline, diesel, and ethanol vehicles, as well as people omit CO2 and heat. That is not a factor that can be controlled with the use of any organic fuel.

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5. 5. Pinkyandthebrain 02:58 PM 9/10/09

   The push for electric vehicles, in my opinion has been unfounded and a great upset. Batttery powered vehicles consume much greater amounts of energy (usually derived from fossil fuels) in their manufacturing and transportation alone. Replacing a battery that lasts only 5-10 years at a cost of about 6000$ per battery alone erodes any savings to the consumer and any reduction in greenhouse gas production. In addition to this fact how can one possibly believe its more efficient to burn a hydrocarbon, transform its potential energy into electrical energy, ship that energy and then store it. Battery technology has a long way to go before its a viable solution to replacing fossil fuel powered vehicles. Natural gas can provide an important stepping stone. Trillions of dollars invested in a fossil fuel Infrastructure are already in place to allow an easy conversion to its use. We must slowly adapt our 100 year old fossil fuel infrastructure to favor electrical powered transportation, but this cannot happen overnight. Above all a switch to domestically produced natural gas would take a huge chunk out of a trade deficit which has your hard earned dollars flowing into other countries economies. The economic impact would be huge, job creation and domestic investment would most likely create more revenue for the North American economy then any other investment. Investigate the issue further and you will find many more incentives for a switch to CNG vehicles. Please petition your local and federal government to provide the infrastructure necessary for the conversion. Our addiction to fossil fuels can't stop overnight but this would be a huge step forward.

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6. 6. gtcalmere 07:03 AM 9/11/09

   see www.gtc-almere.com for professional en relaible cng homerefueling applinace

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