I need to check into some details on this, but it’s certainly an interesting development that we should hear more about this week.
From Auto Motor and Sport, with a translation thanks to Frank!
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Saab will show a new 9-3 for biogas
Tuesday the 27th, a new Saab model will be unveiled in Gothenburg and it can be run on three fuels: gasoline, E85 and biogas.
So far we know no more than having the invitation to the premiere show, which will take place on Tuesday 27th October. The display is made in connection with an EU meeting in Gothenburg, where policy makers are gathered under the heading “Future Road Transport – safe and clean.”
In parallel with seminars and conferences for the heights in Europe to the dealer ANA Trollhättan show off a new Saab 9-3 1,8 t BioPower, which also will run on biogas. The car is a result of the project “Trifuel”, which of course refers to the car can run on the three fuels, gasoline, E85 and biogas. The project was coordinated by Innovatum Teknikpark with GM Powertrain Sweden AB, AVL and BRC Sweden AB.
The conversion to run on biogas will be made by ANA Trollhättan and Saab may thus have a competitor to Volvo V70 2.5 FT Bi Fuel and the Volkswagen Passat bestseller Ecofuel.
For company car drivers, gas-fueled cars that can run on biogas are especially interesting when you get 40 percent discount on the benefit value (not more than 16,000 per year). The rapidly growing interest in gas-fueled cars have put heavy pressure on supplies to the as yet relatively few gasmack services.
Biogas is methane gas extracted from organic waste and it is a very environmentally beneficial vehicle fuel that is carbon neutral. Methane gas is extracted as a byproduct of crude oil and natural gas is then called. The amount of biogas and natural gas can vary from filling stations.
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AMS also have a picture of a Volvo V70 converted to run on BioGas. The tanks are stored in an under-floor compartment so that the space loss is minimal.
Here in Australia we have a lot of cars that run on Liquid Petroleum Gas. Being a gas-newbie I’m unsure if this is a different product, or a different name for the same product (it’s a different product – SW).
Anyway, Australian LPG installations often involve a single large tank in the trunk, which does cause a loss of luggage space. I think they’re getting better at it in more modern cars, though (admittedly, I haven’t looked at an LPG car for a long time).
As AMS say in their article, it’ll be interesting to see how they solve the tank issue.
We’ll watch with interest as this is another good positive development for Saab.
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No, it’s different from LPG. The difference is in pressure and type of gas – LPG is low pressure liquid propane/butane (about 3.5 MPa) and methane is high pressure (200-300 MPa) and is not liquid.
I hope Saab will provide something for LPG also.
I recall Volvo did some years ago :you could order a Volvo with the LPG installation preinstalled. (so you were sure it worked perfectly ).
I don’t know anything about the popularity in the rest of the world, but in Belgium and Netherlands there are quite a few Saabs intalled with LPG. SO you can both enjoy the gasoline Turbo feeling and the cheapness of the fuel (LPG is much more cheaper than Diesel, but ofcourse you have to take the expensive LPG installation in account….
I never understood why not more carmakers are providing a factory LPG installation. Any idea?
PLus its very eco-friendly compared to the rest.
@ Loma : true, I drove a OG 9-3 2.0 LPT on LPG : it was the best driving experience I ever had (cheap and great performance).
Nothing new here.
I remember from the time I worked during my study at an automotive research institute that we had a mercedes-benz 220 that was converted to LPG and after testing converted to LNG (biogas is basically the same as LNG). After those tests had ended the car was coverted for use of methanol and later ethanol (and of course mixtures of gasoline and alcohol).
So I consider this presentation a pure marketing trick. As Loma already mentioned LPG is a common thing here. And if you can do LPG, you can do all gases.
ANA-Trollhättan did convert OG9-3s during the late 90s and early 2000 as a trial for using Biogas in the cars for the Trollhattan muncipality.
This is good news that Saab is back on the biogas-front and is one of the ambition of the Ecopower-marketing
Go Saab Go!
Biogas is just a nicer word for impure methane. Since there is nowhere enough biogas produced for any considerable number of cars, most of those will presumably run on fossil methane. That’s better than petrol, due to more energy stemming from breaking of C-H bounds, but still fossil. There is bare to no infrastructure for biogas refilling of cars, and also fewer stations here in Europe offer fossil methane than lpg. Due to the more complex technology required in the cars for methane, lpg has more or less won.
A useless marketing coup, if you ask me; even though i would say that biogas will have a better environmental balance than E85.
Biogas is just a nicer word for impure methane. Since there is nowhere enough biogas produced for any considerable number of cars, most of those will presumably run on fossil methane. That’s better than petrol, due to more energy stemming from breaking of C-H bounds, but still fossil. There is bare to no infrastructure for biogas refilling of cars, and also fewer stations here in Europe offer fossil methane than lpg. Due to the more complex technology required in the cars for methane, lpg has more or less won.
A useless marketing coup, if you ask me; even though i would say that biogas will have a better environmental balance than E85.
Here in Michigan I would be able to fuel a bio-gas converted car with presurized Natural Gas priced at approximately $2USD per equivalent gallon. With mid-grade gasoline now selling at nearly $3 per gallon this would be a significant savings to me.
Owners in some of the western US states, such as Colorado, can purchase presurized natural Gas for less than $1USD per equivalent gallon!
The flexibility of using Natural Gas when it is available or regular gasoline when Natual Gas isn’t available would be a huge benefit.
Great stuff!
I hope this applies also to the 9-3X. This would compensate somewhat for the lack of a Diesel AWD.
LPG = Liquid Petroleum Gas
LNG = Liquid Natural Gas
CNG = Compressed Natural Gas
What is sold as biogas is normally a mixture of biogas and CNG. As the name implies, it’s not a liquid and becuase of that quite space consuming.
The advantage with biogas is mainly tax related due to its low environmental impact.
One of the reasons why car builders are hesitant towards LPG-enabled engines, is that LPG burns at a higher temperature than gasoline. In gasoline based turbo engines like the 2.0 T, that extra heat can damage your valves. It should be better with the stronger valves in the BioPower engines, but still, it’s a risk. The lead mechanic at my Belgian Saab dealer advised against it. He said you can put a 2.0 T on LPG, but then you have to be careful not to push your engine to the limit.
Bio gas from my experience is the captured methane from the organic breakdown of waste as an example sewage both human and animals (pigeries and intensive farming )landfill and the controlled organic decomposition of certain types of industrial waste. There are many countries that use this source of fuel for town heating and power generation for boilers, also is used to fire brick kilns and it is a valuable energy source . However the downside is often the other organics that get trapped with the methane (in the carbon chain ) are extremely harmful unless removed and will destroy anything metallic due to high PH, further info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogas.
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