gastech
LPG conversions for petrol vehicles : the
environment
Harmful
vehicle emissions can be split into two main categories:
Those that effect climate change, such as Carbon Dioxide (CO2).
And those that effect air quality, such as Fine Particles,
and Oxides of Nitrogen (NOX).
Cleaner
Emissions (Climate change)
Petrol CO2 is 20.3% more than LPG
Diesel CO2 is 1.8% more than LPG
The
often talked about ‘Carbon
Footprint’ is a
measure of the impact our activities have on the environment
in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases we produce. It
is measured in units of carbon dioxide. This can be dramatically
reduced by converting your petrol vehicle to run on LPG.
Cleaner
Emissions (Air Quality)
120 LPG vehicles emit less Fine Particles than 1 diesel
vehicle
20 LPG vehicles emit less Oxides of Nitrogen than 1 diesel
vehicle
Diesel
vehicles offer comparable CO2 readings as LPG vehicles but
are high pollutants when it comes to Air
Quality.
Information
about Fine particles
Fine particles are composed of a wide range of materials
arising from a variety of sources including combustion
sources (mainly
road traffic);
Particles
are measured in a number of different size fractions according
to their mean aerodynamic diameter.
Most monitoring
is currently focussed on PM10, but the finer fractions
such as PM2.5 and PM1 are becoming of increasing interest
in terms
of health effects. Fine particles can be carried deep
into the lungs where they can cause inflammation and a worsening
of the condition of people with heart and lung diseases.
In addition, they may carry surface-absorbed carcinogenic
compounds
into the lungs.
Information
about Oxides of Nitrogen
Nitric oxide (NO) is mainly derived from road transport
emissions and other combustion processes such as the
electricity supply
industry. NO is not considered to be harmful to health.
However, once released to the atmosphere, NO is usually
very rapidly
oxidised to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which is harmful
to health. NO2 and NO are both oxides of nitrogen and together
are referred
to as NOX.
Nitrogen
dioxide can irritate the lungs and lower resistance to respiratory
infections such as influenza.
Continued
or frequent exposure to higher than normal concentrations
may
cause increased
incidence of acute respiratory illness in children.
The
figures used are based on a recently completed 400,000
Euro emissions
programme, comparing the emissions from petrol, diesel
and LPG vehicles:
