John Stephenson – Tribute


	John Stephenson (3rd from Right) with members of the IANGV Executive Committee in Sweden 1992.

As announced in NGV Global last week, it is with great sadness that we record our friend John Stephenson has just passed away at age 87.

I had known John since the late 1970s when we both had offices in the School of Engineering at the University of Auckland. The CNG program in New Zealand was just commencing, driven strongly by the New Zealand Government. It was clear that an important element for successful implementation of CNG in New Zealand was going to be the availability of expertise which could deal with issues that were bound to arise when people tried to convert engines and fuel systems designed to run on petrol to run on natural gas instead. Thus the New Zealand Energy Research and Development Committee decided it would fund the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Auckland to establish a facility which would have the equipment needed to undertake experiments on engines and vehicles and the expertise to deal with the technical issues which would arise in the nascent NGV industry.

That decision gave rise to what became The Vehicles and Fuels Research Unit. John Stephenson, who at that time was Senior Lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering Department, was the person who enthusiastically headed it up in a most professional manner and gathered around him the people who set up the facility and equipment and who then undertook a wide range of investigations. John subsequently became Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department before retiring in the late 1980s.

In 1979, only Italy had a substantial NGV program and much of the CNG equipment used in New Zealand vehicles was imported from there. However, there was a considerable difference between the vehicles using CNG in Italy and those in New Zealand. Comparatively little technical information was available in a form that was useful in New Zealand. Hence the studies undertaken by John’s team were indeed breaking new ground. Titles of reports produced by VFRU in 1981 include:

Facilities and procedures for CNG testing at the University of Auckland
Ignition timing and the performance of a dual fuel CNG/petrol engine
Performance evaluation of Landi den Hartog CNG conversion system
Carbon monoxide exhaust emissions and the CNG engine — relationships between power fuel consumption and CO emissions

A little later, John and the VFRU were also undertaking projects for the New Zealand Liquid Fuels Trust Board.

These included:

CNG metering tables for New Zealand
CNG supplementation of a 2.0 L indirect injection diesel engine
Effects on varying gas composition on the performance of CNG fueled vehicles
Ignition timing and the performance of a dual fuel CNG/petrol engine
Spark ignition conversions: diesel to CNG
LPG in diesel engines

As well as undertaking specific projects, John was giving advice on a day to day basis to many people and organisations experiencing technical difficulties with a wide range of CNG related issues. All of the above reports eventually were in great demand all over the world.

One of the actions that took place during this period was the formation of IANGV. John became Treasurer shortly after its formation and held this post 1988 – 2000. However what was probably more important was his technical and other advice which he provided to me as Secretary-General and to the President and Executive Committee, meetings of which he regularly attended at various locations around the world. Because he had had such a wide range of experience in his working life, his contributions to discussions were greatly valued.

A notable and lasting piece of work was his authorship and editing of the IANGV Position Paper. At the outset, this document was intended to provide an overview of all aspects of the CNG. To quote from the original 1993 edition, “the position paper aims at providing detailed information about NGV technologies and their application, and about the economic and legislative issues that are being tackled by the NGV industry. It sets out to record the achievements of the industry and to discuss future challenges.” While there were contributions from several IANGV members, John was responsible for several chapters and overall editing.

Not being content with the first edition, John repeated the task three times, the last being in 1997. It is notable that the 1997 edition has stood the test of time and only now is a revision being contemplated.

I traveled with John to many parts of the world – he was a great traveling companion. He had the gift of being able to sort the wheat from the chaff at the meetings we attended and had a rigorous approach to the solution of the many problems and issues facing the NGV industry. We all owe John a great debt for his dedication to the development and growth of the NGV industry.

IANGV Executive Committee Members in photo (L-R) -Jouke van der Weide (TNO), Garth Harris (IANGV); Keith Nelson (British Gas), Bob Cummings (Past pres. IANGV), Carlos Lugones,(Argentina – consultant, IANGV President); Ollie Clark (South Australia Gas Co), Jeff Seisler (US NGV Coalition), John Stevenson (Treas. IANGV), Mats Ekelund (Stratego-Sweden and host of the conference), Doug Pinnington (past Pres. IANGV, Allgas Energy).

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