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Emissions from engines fuelled by compressed natural gas are 10 per cent lower than those from a petrol engine. However, because methane's energy density is lower, about 30 per cent more fuel is needed to maintain a vehicle's range. That requires fatter, heavier, high-pressure fuel tanks, which eat up space, dent fuel efficiency and increase the price of the car.
The space-saving notion, developed by technology firm Otherlab of San Francisco, with funding from the US government's energy research arm, ARPA-E, emulates the way the human body maximises storage capacity by folding the intestines back and forth. In place of one large, high-pressure tank there are multiple banks of thin, pressurised metal tubes that can be bent and distributed throughout the car, hugging the inside of the wheel arches, roof supports and front wings.
ARPA-E has also commissioned another company, REL of Calumet, Michigan, to develop an alternative natural gas fuel tank with a flexible, honeycomb-like structure that can conform to any shape within the car.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Gut-twisting tank good for natural-gas cars"