Cape Town - Should a Midrand gas company's plans succeed, more vehicles on South African roads could in future run on compressed natural gas (CNG) instead of petrol or diesel.
The company, Novo Energy, says the use of natural gas as vehicle fuel could prove 15% to 40% cheaper than petrol or diesel, litre for litre.
Novo recently received a licence from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to distribute gas in six areas - Meyerton, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Germiston East, Pretoria, and Cottesloe in Johannesburg.
In its application to Nersa, Novo said it had entered into a 25-year contract with Sasol to buy natural gas for further distribution. Novo also wants to buy natural gas from Egoli Gas, refuse-heap gas from various municipal rubbish-dump gas projects, methane gas from Spring Lights Gas in KwaZulu-Natal, and coal-seam methane gas from sources in the Waterberg, Mpumalanga, the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.
The plan is to compress the gas to CNG at central points and to transport it by road in high-pressure cylinders to clients, or to gas-refilling stations for bus or transport companies, taxis, or for municipalities, companies or state departments with large vehicle fleets.
- Sake24.com
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