Natural gas for vehicles, energy of the future for transports?

In its first part, this study presents an overview of context and pollutions related to the current individual motorised transport system: importance of the individual vehicle, situation of public transport and road transport, types of fuels, environmental pollutions, greenhouse gas emissions. The second part proposes an overview of present knowledge about natural gas for vehicles. It addresses aspects related to this fuel (definition, engine operation, autonomy limitation, environmental assessment), energy aspects (comparison with thermal engines, emissions and pollutants, positive impact on the network for the production of green energy), and benefits, limitations and possible negative impacts (in terms of pollution, noise, supply sources, costs, operation, vehicle safety). In the third part, the authors discuss a possible evolution towards an energy mix in transports by discussing public policies: financial and non financial incentives, laws, European regulation, ways of evolution for our mobility