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Report on the 3rd

CNG-NGV ANGVA Forum 2015, 26 – 28th

Jan 2015, Dubai, UAE

The 3rd

CNG-NGV ANGVA Forum 2015 was successful held at the Le Meridien Hotel,

Dubai, UAE, 26th

to 28th

January 2015. The event consisted of Forum on Days 1 & 2 and

a site visit to EMGAS’s CNG mother station located inside the Dubai Natural Gas

Company Ltd (Dugas) Plant on Day 3. A total of 80 delegates and 7 exhibitors from

UAE and overseas participated in the event.

Top: At the Forum Top: At the Forum

Right: Speaker Left: Speaker from

from ADNOC Emirates Driving

Institute.

Top & Right: At the Exhibition Top: Display of 1 Diesel Dual Fuel

Bus and 1 CNG car outside forum

hall.

At the forum, presentations were made by both local and overseas speakers. Local

speakers included from Emirates Gas, ADNOC Distribution, Emirates Transport, and

Emirates Driving Institute. Overseas speakers were from PTT, Thailand and TUV of

Germany and sponsors speakers included from Safe, Applus Idiada, Hexagon Lincoln,

Luxfer, and Vitkovice.

ADNOC Distribution reported that they were operating 16 CNG stations comprising of 5

daughter stations and 11 online stations in Abu Dhabi (12 stations), Al Ain (3 stations)

and WR (1 station). 4 stations were being constructed in Sharjah. The online stations

included 1 mother station and 1 dedicated station for buses and trucks station.

2

There were 12 CNG bulk transport trailers to supply to daughter stations and 1 Mobile

station. 5 conversion centers were in operation and a total of 3400 petrol vehicles had

been converted to CNG. Besides this, 47 OEM CNG buses were also put into operation

and 3 buses were under evaluation using the Diesel Dual Fuel system. ADNOC was also

exploring the option of constructing LNG/LCNG stations. ADNOC planned to construct

additional 50 NGV stations by the year 2020.

EMGAS touched on the availability of 35,000 scmd of natural gas to supply to the

transport sector in Dubai and surrounding areas. 5,000 scmd of this will come from

ADNOC, 15,000 scmd from Dubai Natural Gas Company Plant (Dusup), and 15,000

scmd from biomethane upgraded from sewage biogas plant. Due to unavailability of

piped natural gas, EMGAS will concentrate on installing daughter stations at dedicated

fleet owner premises in Dubai. EMGAS had also introduced the concept and design of

mini daughter station. Currently 2 CNG stations (1 mother station and 1 mobile filling

unit) are owned and operated by EMGAS/ENOC. Around 300 natural gas vehicles were

in operation in Dubai.

Emirates Transport, a fully government owned entity, reported that they operated NGV

Centers in various part of UAE providing NGV vehicle conversion services, repair and

maintenance services, and consultancy service. As of 31st Dec 2014, Emirates Transport

had converted 4029 vehicles.

TUV, which had provided the expertise and experiences in the development and

implementation of “UAE Regulation Natural Gas Vehicles” together with ESMA and

ADNOC, was also involved in the current revision of the UAE Regulation and the

development of Diesel Dual Fuel Roadmap and Regulations. TUV informed that under

current UAE Regulations “Cylinders for using compressed natural gas (CNG) in the

propulsion system of a road vehicle shall be re-inspected after 36 months (to be amended

to 48 months in the revision of the UAE Regulation) of use as follows based on ISO

19078 requirements :

1. External (visual) inspection by Executer/Executer nominated Third Party

Inspector (TPI)

2. Internal (visual) inspection by Executer/Executer nominated TPI

3. Volumetric expansion test by Executer/Executer nominated TPI

However, TUV pointed out that the volumetric expansion test only applies for a number

of 10% of randomly chosen cylinders out of the field, or if evidence is given which

requires this test.”

The TUV speaker, commenting on the requirement for Hydrostatic Testing of CNG

cylinders made to ECE R110, stated that based on his experiences and “taking into

account various factors, it would appear that requiring an internal inspection or

hydrostatic testing of these CNG cylinders would introduced much risk (and cost) with

little, if any, gain”.

Many other interesting topics were covered by various speakers during the Forum. There

were also some interesting points raised and discussed during questions and answers

period and also during the Roundtable Discussion.

Reported by Lee Giok Seng, Executive Director, ANGVA, 13th Feb 2015