The real cost of do-it-yourself compressed natural gas (CNG) conversions has hit home this month with two serious incidents costing one life and narrowly avoiding killing several more. One man died in Melaka, Malaysia earlier this month while refuelling a van which had been reportedly fitted with an LPG cooking cylinder instead of properly certified high-pressure CNG cylinders. Three others were seriously injured in the incident. Meanwhile in Salt Lake City, USA, 4 children were hospitalized after natural gas fumes leaked into their vehicle during refuelling, due to leaks in the high pressure piping and fittings, reportedly the result of a home conversion to CNG.

IANGV has established an online Business Directory to enable interested parties to more easily find companies and other contacts worldwide for the purpose of doing business.  There are at present approximately 30,000 visitors to the IANGV website each month and the IANGV Secretariat receives many requests for contact information.  Companies must be current or affiliated members of the IANGV to list in the directory - part of our service to allow industry stakeholders to establish contacts more efficiently.

Companies can obtain preferential listings in the directory through participating in our website sponsorship program. Enquiries about the sponsorship program can be made to the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Currently there almost 200 IANGV member companies in the directory, working in all sections of the NGV industry around the world.

USA, Greensburg (Indiana)

2009 model qualifies for Californian funding

Honda Manufacturing of Indiana, LLC today dedicated its new auto plant that last month began producing the fuel-efficient CNG, 4-cylinder Honda Civic Sedan. America Honda also announced this week that the 2009 Honda Civic GX has joined the 2007 and 2008 Civic GX on the list of vehicles eligible for a $3,000 rebate under California’s Alternative Fuel Vehicle Incentive Program (also known as Fueling Alternatives).

5th CNG Conference & Exhibition on Dec. 2-3 2008 at Lahore, Pakistan

The 5th International Conference and Exhibition on CNG (CNG Conex-2008) will be held on December 2-3 2008 at the Pearl Continental Hotel, Lahore, Pakistan. This event is organised by Pakistan's National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH), and is supported by the Pakistan CNG Dealers Association, CNG Station Owners Association and the Task Force for Environment Punjab. The organisers are expecting over 30 national and multinational exhibitors including oil marketing companies, equipment manufacturers, distributors and producers of local CNG products. Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif is to inaugurate the event while the Federal Minister for Environment, Chairman Task Force for Environment Punjab Dr. Awais Farooqi, Secretary Petroleum & Natural Resources,  and the Director-General of the Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan (HDIP) Hilal A. Raza, and representatives of D.G. Gas, OGRA & others will present at the event. See the NFEH website for more information.

Submission deadline - December 19 2008.

Organisers of next year's NGV India Conference and Exhibition are inviting submissions from speakers wishing to present at the event in New Delhi, India from March 24-26, 2009. The event is the first of its type in India and has been themed, Sustainable Transport in a Prospering Marketplace, a reference to India's growing demand for motor vehicles and the rapidly expanding natural gas network, expected to reach more than 220 cities by 2012. The conference will cover South Asia in general and include a range of material over the three day program, with speakers invited to present papers on industry safety, sustainable industry growth, air quality and greenhouse benefits, CNG 'alternatives' (e.g. LNG, biomethane, ANG, hydrogen blends, etc),OEM participation, gas supply and gas quality, research and innovations, commercial and safety benefits of radio frequency identification tags (RFID) and more. Final papers should be 15-30 minutes in length and must contain original material for consideration. Submissions of abstracts should be no more than a page in length, and must include a short bio of the author/presenter. Speakers accepted will be entitled to a discounted registration fee for the event (details TBA). Abstracts should be submitted via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it before December 19 2008.

Colombia, Bogota

Owners of vehicles fuelled by natural gas (NGVs) are being recognised for their contribution to the environment, being potentially eligible for bonds with which to access discounts or reimbursements for fuel consumed. The structured program is reported to be offered by Gas Natural, and Ecoenergy Optim Consult, with the aim of obtaining carbon credits in the voluntary market. The announcement was made within the framework of the first Forum for Alternative Fuels and Environment, conducted by the magazine Auto & Style and Corferias. The program hopes to directly stimulate about 7,000 conversions to natural gas annually, for the life of the program. Portafolio states about 265,000 vehicles have been converted to NGVs in Colombia.

USA, Brawley, CA

Border Valley Trading, an exporter of compressed hay products in the state of California, has set about replacing its fleet of diesel trucks with units that utilize clean-burning liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel.  With fifteen LNG powered trucks currently in operation, they plan an additional five to ten by second quarter of 2009. The trucks, fuelled under an agreement with Applied LNG Technologies USA, LLC (ALT), will be used to distribute feed products. "Converting our export operations fleet to clean burning LNG was at the top of our list of new initiatives,” said Gregory Braun, President of Border Valley Trading. (Press Release)

France

Biomethane coming to the French natural gas network

Findings of a study of health and environmental risks from the injection of biomethane fuel into the natural gas distribution network, requested from the French Agency for Health and Safety in the Environment and Workplace (AFSSET) in September 2006, have now been released. As was indicated by BioGasMax in Dec 2007 (see NGV Global article), its conclusions are “unequivocally favourable when biogas is produced from methanisation of waste or from storage of non-dangerous waste.” Furthermore, AFSSET states (translated), "The agency considers that there is no specific health risk associated with the injection into the network of certain types of cleaned biogas, compared to natural gas."

Venezuela, Caracas

European OEMs VW and BMW have both answered the call of the Venezuelan government to provide models capable of operating on natural gas. BMW announced last month that they will release four models next year with OEM endorsed conversions making the vehicles capable of operating on either natural gas or gasoline. Volkswagen meanwhile are releasing a range of bi-fuel vehicles under the VW, Skoda, SEAT and Audi brands. Both manufacturers will use conversion kits supplied by Italian-based BRC.