Thailand, Bangkok

Officials in Thailand have verified the cause of Sunday's explosion of a compressed natural gas (CNG) cylinder on a truck at a PTT petrol station as an illegally installed gas fuel system. The explosion occurred during refilling. An inspection by the Energy Business Department and PTT found that all seven cylinders installed in the natural gas vehicle (NGV) were in poor condition. The cylinder walls were found to be thinner than specifications, with less capacity to handle the high pressures used for NGV systems. Fibreglass coverings typically used with NGV tanks to boost durability were also ripped and in bad condition.

ISO standards are regularly reviewed.  The cylinder standard ISO 11439 is currently going through this process.  There is now a draft standard which is being reviewed.  Any reader of NGV Global who wishes to review the draft should request a copy from This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Comments on the draft need to be submitted to ISO through the appropriate national standards association.
 

India, Mumbai

Press reports of four fatalities in a school bus in Mumbai being caused by an exploding compressed natural gas (CNG) cylinder have turned out to be incorrect. Industry sources in India say the vehicle was an LPG fitted vehicle and that the accident was in fact caused by sparks igniting petrol kept in a plastic bottle beneath the driver’s seat. Due to malfunctions in the LPG system, the plastic bottle was reportedly being used as a temporary fuel supply. Though this incident wasn’t related to CNG, the IANGV takes this opportunity to remind readers that tampering with ANY fuel system should never be considered and that all repairs should be conducted by authorized service personnel.

Dr Jeffrey Seisler is the CEO of Clean Fuels Consulting and is also Vice President Government Relations for IANGV.

Two new developments within the structure of the United Nations Working Party 29 on World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations will change the way natural gas vehicles and other alternative fuels are handled within the worldwide regulatory body.  Up until 2008 the gaseous emissions-and-safety-based regulations (for NGVs and liquefied petroleum gas – LPG) have been handled within the Group of Experts on Pollution and Energy (GRPE), one of the groups within the WP29.  As of June 2007 the activities outside of fuel and emissions, such as the all-important safety provisions associated with Regulations 110 and 115 will be handled by the Group of Experts on General Safety (GRSG).  Additionally, a new Informal Group on Gaseous Fuelled Vehicles (GFV) was created within GRPE as a ‘fast-track’ measure for all the emissions-based regulations.  These two new developments overall are positive, however, not without some new challenges.