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Ministry of Transportation held urban building of public transport conference in Xi’an, where the first batch of enterprises building City of Public Transport stated their experience. Promotion of energy conservation and new-energy automobiles got the most attention, especially application of LNG public transport.
In Dalian, 713 renewal buses worthy of 0.37 billion Yuan have been into operation since City of Public Transport started. Energy saving and new-energy buses were 394 units (30 hybrid buses, 20 pure electric buses, and 344 LNG buses), taking up 55%. In Beijing, over 3,000 large LNG buses ordered would make new contributions to Plan of Blue Sky in Beijing. In Guiyang, 2,227 public buses have used LNG clean fuel since Oil to Gas project started in 2005, which helped Guiyang become representative of national capitals completely using clean energy. In fact, LNG public bus promotion has been all over China besides pilot cities of City of Public Transport.
Synchronized Quantity and Quality
Public transport priority resolves problem of urbanization
According to data collected by Ministry of Transportation, urbanization rate increases 1% each year, which means that over 10 million people flow into cities from rural area and urban area expands. During 2000 to 2011, existing urban area of China increases 94%.
In addition, rapid increase of private automobile and advent of automotive society in advance bring convenience to citizens, followed by environmental and traffic jam problems. Through 11 years from 2000, automobile inventory increased to 106 million units from original 16.09 million units. However, public transport vehicles increase slower. By the end of 2012, public electric buses were only 0.475 million units. Without major status of public transportation in urban transportation system established, public transportation in most of central cities takes up less than 30%, which decreases to about 10% in small cities. There is a huge gap between China and foreign countries. Problems, like long hours waiting for bus, slow driving and crowded passengers, are quite outstanding. Average speed of public buses in major central cities is about 15km/h which is equal to bicycle and influences the attraction of urban public transport.
In other words, rapid development of economic society and accelerated urbanization process put forward new requirements of urban public transportation. Leader in Ministry of Transportation told our reporter, “When expanding popularity and depth of public transportation, service capability and quality should be also enhanced to achieve synchronized quantity and quality.”
LNG Public Transportation Becomes Trend
Bus priority pushes upgrading and transformation of vehicle structure
Based on authoritative data, petroleum consumption in 2012 was 490 million tons and imported petroleum was 284 million tons, which showed foreign-petroleum dependence of 58%. As a major user of petroleum, transportation industry takes up more than 36% of national consumption. Resource environmental restriction gets severe which pushes the development of bus priority, especially those upgrading of vehicle structure.
Due to no harmful or toxic substances, LNG bus above National IV (National IV included) would produce no PM emission and is of high environmental protection. Apart from environmental protective function, LNG bus is of improved stable body while in operation owing to stable supply of natural gas. Meanwhile, LNG bus would lower cost, which means a better application prospect than traditional bus. Based on practical operation, the price of LNG is about 70% of diesel. If LNG replaces diesel, fuel cost would be saved 30%. And LNG station network in China is becoming widely spread; national promotion of LNG vehicles has no troubles.
As for practical operation, environmental department took a tail gas emission inspection over Foton AUV LNG buses which were on operation in Route 1 in Beijing. According to operational tracking report lasting a year, decreases of carbon oxide, hydrocarbon, oxynitride, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, automobile noise and benze, lead and dust of LNG bus are respectively 97%, 72%, 80%, 24%, 90%, 40% and 100%.
Automobile Manufacturers Follow the Trend
Technology of LNG Vehicle Gets Mature
Accelerated urbanization process, urban traffic jam and exacerbated environment push the upgrading and transformation of transportation industry. Automobile manufacturers must follow the trend by developing and designing reliable and excellent products to satisfy market demanding. At present, domestic major bus manufacturers all launch LNG vehicles, in which Foton AUV bus stands out.
Beijing Public Transport and Foton signed another 3,012 LNG buses in this August after the former 18m large AUV LNG buses order, which motivates national scale.
It is learned that BJ6127 suburban bus, BJ6128 double deck LNG urban bus, and BJ6180 low-floor LNG urban bus purchased by Beijing Public Transport are all classic AUV buses with complete and enough research by Foton. In order to lower operational cost and decrease environmental pollution, AUV LNG bus combines I-POWER power technology, full-load body and e-AIR engine intelligent cooling system all in itself.
AUV LNG bus is of highly integrated systematic design. Its cylinder is in separated closed compartment, isolating all wire electrical to avoid hidden danger. Meanwhile, anti-leaking device in cylinder compartment can avoid leaking accumulative gas and subsequent explosion. AUV LNG bus adopts A-level non-ignitable material. What’s more, leaking alarm and auto fire extinguishing devices are equipped in engine compartment and get connected with monitoring screen on instrumental panel. The passive security gets higher.