COMMENTARY
ALFRED THA HLA
'Should I choose liquefied petroleum gas [LPG] or compressed natural gas [CNG] for my car?"
It's a question that might outrank marriage proposals in frequency these days.
Since our embattled prime minister described the media as possessing vijaranayan tum (poor judgement) at a recent Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) meeting, I guess it would be prudent of me to recommend cost-conscious drivers to go ahead and ride a horse for all I care.
On second thoughts, motoring journos and our brethren are above that.
Shifting gears to what can be done to alleviate our predicament with high oil prices - a cure-all panacea is like waiting for an honest politician to appear, so an immediate solution is wishful thinking.
The price of diesel was about seven baht to the litre when then-editor Panthep Chamrasromran perused my application for a job in Motoring in 1995.
Looking at today's fuel prices is painful, on a par with waiting for the dentist's assistant to call your name. Both the fuel tank and cavity need filling up.
Floated diesel currently costs about 44 baht a litre, a tad cheaper than its benzine counterpart, which is why we need solutions (and scapegoats).
Opec (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) is one acronym that most people and the government would love to blame as the culprits behind crude inching toward US$150 a barrel.
But Opec isn't a diamond cartel that controls inflated prices through calculated supply schemes for shiny stones fashionably exaggerated as a girl's best friend.
Why not blame the energy appetites of Chindia (China and India)?
Or tax the oil companies, both local and foreign, on the insane profits that should have been reinvested on developing alternative energy sources.
On the other hand if you increase drilling activities, will the financial gains be worth the environmental costs?
Expansion of refinery capacity will not lower the price of petrol either.
Just like how foreign hedge funds, and a handful of hi-profile families of Thai citizenry, walked away with busloads of money by speculating and buying back auctioned Thai businesses at a fraction of their cost during the 1997 financial crunch - the same is being done with oil futures contracts which eventually determine actual crude price.
Pressuring Opec, increasing drilling and refinery activities or asking speculators to grow a conscience between their ears won't help.
Different alternative fuels is far more appealing, but let's not get too excited about the recent E85 (benzine 15% and ethanol 85%) brouhaha. We don't even have cars with E85 flexi-fuel technology. Well, that's not entirely true, Thailand has one, I repeat, one unit that can run on E85, a Volvo C30 1.8F show car.
Besides conventional ethanol made from sugar cane and cassava - there is cellulosic ethanol, also called ceetol, which is a biofuel produced from wood chips or non-edible parts of plants.
According to the US Department of Energy, cellulosic ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 85% over reformulated petrol. But is technologically challenging and expensive.
And it certainly isn't electric cars either, despite Toyota announcing hybrid Camry production in Thailand.
The pollution expended in developing and producing hybrids will outstrip fuel savings drivers think they are going to gain.
I enjoyed the vision of Pana Ratana of Shell Hydrogen LLC and how hydrogen-fuelled cars produce water as exhaust - but the hydrogen refuelling network is somewhere in the distant future.
So, LPG or CNG?
Even after floating LPG next year, it'll still be twice as cheap as benzine.
CNG, commonly known as NGV (natural gas vehicle), will hike prices by about 50% in 2010, though it's currently cheaper at 8.50 baht a kilogramme; yet requiring 20,000-30,000 baht more for installation cost in addition to an insufficient number of refuelling stations nationwide. However, there's always that PTT station on the expressway [just before heading out to Bang Na] which has no waiting line.
You can use either LPG or CNG and still save up to four times what's normally burnt off on your petrolhead or oilburner - which is a mouthful that goes down better than admitting to not knowing.
What I know [should you pass on gas] is if you IDLE you're doing zero kilometres a litre. Warming engines is not mandatory. TAKE IT EASY by avoiding hard braking or acceleration and maintain a steady pace at 90kph in top gear. DON'T DRAG by carrying things on top of your car or opening windows. AVOID SHORT TRIPS or pool them into one if possible. A TUNED ENGINE increases fuel efficiency by 10-20% and CHECK YOUR TYRES since under-inflated tyres use more energy, and even faster tyre wear.
Or you can always buy a horse.
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