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CERTAIN
manufacturers have taken global warming as a challenge,
and presented numerous working vehicles that can help
the environment. Yes, they are all good methods of
reducing exhaust emissions, but the technology that
powers the said vehicles or the fuel itself is costly.
The
green yet greenback-reducing solution, according to
Total Philippines Corp. and SKN, is right in one’s
kitchen, to be exact. Yes, the very same liquefied
petroleum gas (LPG) that cooks your adobo can also be
used to power automobiles.
It has
been proven in the country over the last two years that
LPG can power automobiles, with nearly every taxi in the
metro running on LPG nowadays. But the engines being
powered are mostly inline four-cylinder Japanese units.
The big question is: Can LPG power massive engines such
as the Ford 5.4L Triton V8s found in the Expedition SUVs
and F150 pickups?
The
answer is a resounding yes. Why? SKN claims that its LPG
conversion kits are much different from that of its
competitors. One reason is SKN’s
emulators—electromechanical piggyback LPG fuel
distributors that are connected to the ECU (electronic
control unit, the vehicle’s brain). When the car is
operating on LPG, the fuel injectors will not be sending
any information to the other sensors in the car—this
will light up the “check engine” light and give
incorrect diagnostic readings. The emulator “fakes” the
proper signals so the ECU can operate properly. For V8
engines, SKN uses two emulators (one for four
cylinders). “The ECU tells the emulator what to instruct
the injectors to do; the emulators are preprogrammed
already for a particular vehicle. We don’t cut off the
ECU; doing that causes problems and costs more money in
the long run. Also, tuning the ECU is done manually for
minimal engine risk,” said SKN general manager Ravi
Idnani.
Another
unique selling point is the LPG tanks, which come from
India (New Delhi), and before they arrive here they are
tested rigidly for seven months.
 “Just
to prove that the LPG tanks are leak-proof, we rolled
them [with LPG filled to the brim] down 12 flights of
stairs in a hotel in Cebu. There was one dent, but no
leaks. We made it collide with a train, and there were
no leaks. We lit up the tank, and it only exploded when
the internal pressure rose to three times the normal
pressure inside the tank [8 bar]. Each and every
component in our kit is made under one roof in
India
in order to ensure quality. If each component of an LPG
kit is outsourced from a different country and put
together, there are potential quality and safety
concerns,” said Idnani.
Last is
Total’s AutoLPG itself, which has the lowest
flammability range of any natural gas, since the two
compounds that compose LPG—propane and
butane/isobutene—have boiling points well below zero
degrees Celsius. That means that even at very low
temperatures, it will vaporize as soon as it is released
from its pressurized container. This results in a
clean-burning fuel that doesn’t require a lot of
equipment to vaporize and mix with air. In short,
there’s no risk of fire.
 In
order to prove their theory, Total and SKN gave this
writer the opportunity to test drive the latter’s
LPG-powered 2000 Expedition Eddie Bauer for a week,
using both Total unleaded gasoline and LPG. There were
huge gaps in terms of power between gas and LPG use (see
specifications), but the fuel costs between the two
kinds of fuel are obvious. “It’s not as powerful as
gasoline. We’re talking about fuel delivery, vapor vs.
liquid. But when you’re running at a maximum of 130
to140 kph, you have enough torque and power to get you
from point A to point B and save on fuel costs,” said
Idnani.
Despite
the obvious gap in power and torque delivery between
running on gasoline and running on AutoLPG, the
benefits—especially when it comes to fuel costs—are
obvious. More important, the fact that AutoLPG extends
engine life due to the absence of carbon deposits—which
reduces soot formation, engine abrasion and chemical
degradation of oil—can make even gas-guzzlers go green. |
