The ABCs of Natural Gas
The Web site: www.AllAboutNaturalGas.com explains natural gas simply and interactively.You will find information about :


  • › Natural gas characteristics.
  • › The route of natural gas: from Western Canada to Quebec.
  • › Environmental properties of natural gas.
  • › Energy efficiency.
  • › Security.

We invite you to check it out for yourself!

Natural gas for vehicles

An alternative fuel
Natural gas for vehicles (NGV) is used in its compressed (CNG) or liquefied (LNG) form and serves as an alternative fuel for powering various vehicles.
  • Road: Heavy trucks, tool trucks, urban and intercity buses, commercial vehicle fleets, cars, rail etc.;
  • Sea: Boats, especially ferries;
  • Planes (on an experimental basis).

Around the world today, more than 10 million vehicles run on natural gas. They are especially common in California, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Pakistan, India, China, and Iran. It is estimated that there are some 110,000 natural gas vehicles on the road in the United States and more than 12,000 in Canada (CNG).


Many environmental benefits
In Québec, the road transportation sector is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs), accounting for 40% of total emissions. NGV is an immediately available solution that has many benefits for the environment:

  • It helps lower GHGs by about 25% compared with a diesel vehicle; 
  • It emits practically no atmospheric contaminants (NOx and fine particles) responsible for urban smog.
Gaz Métro is currently working on a project to introduce natural gas heavy vehicles on Highways 20 and 401 between Québec City and Toronto. In order to encourage trucking firms to take a green shift and reduce their GHG emissions, the Québec Government has introduced fiscal measures to facilitate the purchase of liquefied natural gas (LNG) trucks.
For more information, consult the Québec Economic & Budgetary Action Plan (p.230).

Statistic

Natural gas is composed of approximately 96% methane (CH4­).

Technical Data

Chemical group: Hydrocarbon
Appearance: Colourless
Odour: Odourless, mercaptan is added by the supplier in order to give it a smell of rotten eggs.
Nature: Non corrosive
Solubility: Water-insoluble
Stability: Stable substance

    Relative density of natural gas

    Natural gas distributed by Gaz Métro has a relative density of approximately 0.578, which means that a cubic meter of natural gas weighs 57.8% of a cubic meter of air. It rises and dissipates quickly when released into the air.