India’s first LNG-powered bus launched in Kerala

India's first Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) driven bus was launched on 8 November 2016 in Kerala.

Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan jointly flagged off the first pilot run of the eco-friendly bus on the sidelines of the fourth meeting of the Group of Ministers, set up by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

The LNG-driven bus was rolled out as part of the Union Government’s plans to use LNG.

About Liquefied Natural Gas

• Liquefied natural gas is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane C2H6f) that has been converted to liquid form for ease of storage or transport.

• It takes up about 1/600th the volume of natural gas in the gaseous state.

• It is odorless, colorless, toxic and non-corrosive.

• LNG achieves a higher reduction in volume than Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) so that the (volumetric) energy density of LNG is 2.4 times greater than that of CNG or 60 percent that of diesel fuel.

• This makes LNG cost efficient to transport over long distances where pipelines do not exist.

• Natural gas could be considered the most environmentally friendly fossil fuel, because it has the lowest CO2 emissions per unit of energy.

• For an equivalent amount of heat, burning natural gas produces about 30 percent less carbon dioxide than burning petroleum and about 45 per cent less than burning coal.