Dubai: A total of 476 vehicles were converted to operate on natural gas during the first half of 2016, according to Emirates Transport, who has been taking ambitious steps to safeguard the environment by promoting green practices among the public.
The Union Centre for converting vehicles to operate on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), one of Emirates Transport business centres, managed to convert the vehicles and achieve a revenue of more than Dh3.4 million, it said on Wednesday.
Natural gas is considered a safe fuel that is lighter than air, as it evaporates quickly into the atmosphere in the event of leakage, compared to other fuels that accumulate on the ground, which constitutes a threat to everyone. Natural gas also has a narrow range of ignition which makes it safer compared to other fuels.
Amir Al Harmoudi, executive director of the Technical Services Division at Emirates Transport, said that the institution had taken several other ambitious steps such as launching a new substation in March, the first of its kind in Dubai, in collaboration with Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc) to provide transport vehicles with CNG.
The new station serves sustainability practices through the use of natural gas fuel as an alternative to the vehicles in the state, particularly in Dubai and the northern emirates.
“The institution is currently working on a project to convert diesel vehicles and buses to operate on compressed natural gas in cooperation with Adnoc Distribution, to launch the centre of converting buses to operate on the dual fuel system [natural gas and diesel] in the emirate of Abu Dhabi,” he said.
He added that CNG has acquired an importance at the environmental and economic levels as a substitute ideal fuel, and is considered one of the cleanest fuels which is more secure and beneficial to the institutions and individuals compared with other energy sources.
The conversion of the 476 vehicles has been described as the embodiment of the state’s efforts to protect the environment, meet the sustainable development requirements and its ambitious vision for the UAE to become one of the best countries in the world by 2021.
“Vehicles converted to operate on CNG help reduce exhaust ratio and vehicles’ carbon footprint by up to 70 per cent, which promotes green development practices and forms a strong push to continue to provide services that exceed customer expectations.”
Mahir Al Sayed Ali, director of The Union Centre, explained that the centre is handling the management activities and supervision on the conversion of vehicles to operate on natural gas and is providing the technical services for maintenance and repair to the converted vehicles and all other support services to customers.
“The conversion process takes anywhere from four to five hours only, and does not require any modification to the car’s engine but some special parts of CNG system arae added to the original parts, which does not cause any damage to the original warranty of the vehicle manufacturing company,” he said.
The car will, therefore, be working on dual fuel system (gas or petrol) at the option of the driver, he added.
He noted that according to the executed contracts, a period of 24 months or 100,000km, whichever is earlier, is provided for the warranty from the date of the conversion process, and that the centre performs periodic maintenance to the converted vehicles to start from 20,000km or two months depending on the vehicle’s performance or customer feedback. The centre provides its services 24 hours a day and also offers emergency service.
As for the cost of conversion, he said that according to the price list approved by Abu Dhabi company for oil distribution (Adnoc), the cost of converting four cylinder engine vehicles is Dh5,651, the cost of converting six cylinder engine vehicles is Dh5,751, and the cost of converting eight cylinder engine vehicles amounts to Dh5,851.
The conversion processes are carried out by specialised technical staff who have experience in converting vehicles to operate on compressed natural gas system and they hold recognised certificates.
