OREANDA-NEWS. May 17, 2012. KAMAZ NGVs were presented in the Ministry of Transport and Public Roads of Tatarstan at a meeting on the rational use of natural gas – methane – as fuel.

The meeting was attended by representatives of national ministries of environment and energy, tax administrations, Tatarstan Investment Development Agency, OOO Gazpromtransgaz-Kazan, top managers of motor carriers.

According to Lenar Safin, Minister of Transport and Public Roads of the Republic of Tatarstan, there are good conditions for promotion of NGVs in Tatarstan. But, at first, it is necessary to convert vehicles into NGVs and create a network of specialized enterprises for repair and technical control of CNG vehicles and equipment.

These tasks can be solved with the help of products made by KAMAZ which has successfully been developing NGVs for a long time. KAMAZ vehicles running on methane were presented by Rafael Batyrshin, Director General of RariTEK. This company is a distributor of KAMAZ producing gas-powered equipment.

No doubt, it is rational to use natural gas as fuel for heavy-duty and passenger vehicles. Thus, gas-powered vehicles help to reduce emissions. In addition, there are no losses due to evaporation and gas pollution during filling.

As to efficiency, natural gas is the cheapest of all fuels on the market. The use of gas for urban heavy-duty and passenger vehicles helps to save from RUB 450 thousand to 530 thousand a year on the difference in the cost of fuel, depending on the type and power of engines.

As regards security, methane is not toxic or carcinogenic natural gas. It is almost twice lighter than air, and it evaporates immediately if equipment becomes depressurized. Therefore, there is no risk of explosions out-of-doors and even in well-ventilated places if a large volume of gas leaks. According to a flammable substances classification, methane belongs to the safest class – Class 4.