University Daily Kansan / Fridav. April 17. 1992
9
Gasoline vaporizing into past
KU students are studying alternative: compressed natural gas
By Janet Rorholm
Kansan staff writer
By the year 2000, the United States could be gasoline-free.
Gasoline-powered cars are failing increasingly stringent emissions standards across the country.
Donald Gyorog, professor of mechanical engineering, said the standards had become tougher because gasoline emissions had proved too harmful to the atmosphere.
"Unburned hydrocarbons have a long life in the atmosphere, where they deplete the ozone layer." Gyorog said. "This creates the greenhouse effect."
Without gasoline, an alternative fuel is needed.
Compressed natural gas is the primary replacement that scientists are studying, especially in Kansas, said Gyorog, who advises a mechanical-engineering design class that has conducted research on the subject.
Students in the class are modifying a four-cylinder engine and comparing its performance using gasoline to its performance using compressed, natural gas.
The students received a $15,000 donation for the project.
Keith Harrison, Lawrence senior and member of the class, said the money would be used to buy a compressor and equipment to convert the engine.
Any car can be modified to run on
natural gas, Harrison said.
However, storage of the tank is a problem, he said. A tank that holds compressed, natural gas is larger and heavier. Also, about 10 percent of the acceleration power is lost with the change in fuel.
A car ideally would be designed from scratch to run on natural gas to eliminate the problems.
Gyorog said low-emission cars probably would be required by law by the end of the decade.
"That's the reason for the rush toward electrical and natural-gas cars,"he said.
Alternative fuel research has increased tremendously in the past decade. Gvorog said.
He said scientists for the past 50 years had been able to modify some cars to run on compressed, natural gas.
The second advantage of compressed, natural gas is better fuel efficiency, Gyorog said. Compressed, natural gas, which is similar to the gas burned in a water heater or a gas driver. also is cheaper than gasoline.
Last October, Kansas began a program called Vehicle Roundup. Gov. Joan Finney committed the state to increase natural gas in state-owned vehicles
John Morelock, alternative-fuels coordinator for the Kansas Corporation Commission, said the main reasons for using natural gas were the state's vast natural gas supply and the potential economic effect on Kansas of such a program.
Kansas is one of the largest natural gas suppliers in the United States. The Hugoton Fields in southwest Kansas is the largest supplier in the area.
"For all practical purposes we have just started the program," Morelock said. "But we've been told by other states that we have done more with less money than anyone else has been able to do."
The state is in the process of converting 32 cars.
Morelock said California already had passed a law requiring cars to run on electricity or another nonpolluting fuel by the end of the decade.
"Natural gas can really have an economic impact on clean air." Morelock said. "But that is one difficult thing to get Kansans all ripped up, because wedon't the city a dirty artifact," she added. "With 2.5 million people, and 1.5 million of them live in Kansas City. Kansas City is on the verge of a targeted city."
"I know it's happening with the state, and we're learning what we can, but I don't forsee anything happening any time soon," he said.
Gaylen, KU assistant director of facilities operations, said he had gathered information on compressed, natural gas in case the University of Kansas decided to change fuels.
Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas
would like to thank:
Black Poets Society, Black Student Union, Arden Booth, Clinical Psychology Program, Department of Education, Department of Psychology, Department of Social Welfare, Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center, English Alternative Theater, English Department, First Fridays, Freedom Coalition, Graduate Association of Students of History, Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association, Hillel, Kinko's Copy Center, KUACLU, Krista Martin, Network, Stephen Santee, Jim Scally, Sexual Orientation Support, Shelly Solon, Student Assistance Center, Student Union Activities, Students Against Violence Against Women, Caroline Trowbridge, University Theatre and Department of Theatre and Film, Charles Whitman, Atty., Women's Student Union, Women's Studies Department, and Women's Transitional Care Services.
for their support for Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week'92
A special thanks to Student Senate, the many members of the GALA week committee, and its co-chairs, Eric Barnhart and Jim Danoff-Burg, for making this the most successful Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week yet.