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Bulgarian smell of the Week: Natural Gas (aka propane, газ, juice, happy air, smelly air, Earth Day, tree hugger)
Thursday, April 17, 2008

Driving in Bulgaria is much more of a luxury than it is in the States. Many people do not have cars and rely on other transportation systems for their travel needs (thus the need to blog about transportation). But I don’t care so much about that right now. Now I will discuss the phenomenon of using natural gas (or propane as some people know it) as opposed to gasoline to power many cars in Bulgaria.

You can tell by the smell. If you have ever been camping in a trailer or motor home you know what I am talking about. It is a smell that is much cleaner than the exhaust we are used to smelling coming out of the back of our SUV’s and boat cars. And it being Earth Day this Tuesday here is what greencar.com has to say about it:

“Propane is rapidly establishing itself as an important alternative fuel in the transportation sector because of its impressive environmental benefits and inherent cost advantages over gasoline, diesel, and other alt-fuels. It isn’t a direct greenhouse gas when released into the air. Current measurements have not found a global climate impact from propane emissions (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-IPCC). Compared to conventional fuel sources, propane generates fewer GHG emissions in almost every application. At the point of use, it has a lower carbon content than gasoline, diesel, heavy fuel oil, or even biodiesel and ethanol.”

Of course not very many cars that have this natural gas apparatus were produced with it. It is common to see it on the older, less efficient ones. So it had to be installed at some point, usually costing about $400. Which is just a bit below the average monthly wage of someone working in Sofia at $410.

Gasoline in Sofia now costs about $6 a gallon, compared to $3.42 back in the States. A little more research turned up the following. I put it in a table to try and not confuse myself.

Fuel Facts
	Bulgaria	USA
Gasoline
Cost per gallon	$ 6.00	$ 3.42
Kilometers per gallon	26	26
Cost for 100 KM	$ 23.08	$ 13.15
Propane
Cost per gallon	$ 3.25	$ 1.55
Kilometers per gallon	38	38
Cost for 100 KM	$ 8.59	$ 5.00
Cost of conversion kit	$ 400.00	$ 1,000.00
Distance to recover cost of switching to propane	5529 KM	21000 KM
*Figures are in USD

I have a friend with a car that gets 26 kilometers/gallon with gas here. So with that mileage a car it would cost $23.08 to drive 100 kilometers (vs $13.15 with the same fuel economy in the States). For propane however, it costs about $3.25 a gallon here in Sliven. And that same car that gets about 38 kilometers/gallon of propane. And since propane is cheaper, it would cost only $8.59 to drive 100 kilometers, quite a savings. With this savings, it would take roughly 5529 KM in Bulgaria to recover the cost of the installation of the apparatus. And since the average Bulgarian drives 45 KM a year, it would roughly take 9000 years to make investing in one of those things worth it. But for the average American it would take about one year to recover the cost. Since the price of gas has been rising the price of propane has also risen from $1.05 a year ago in the States.

So the benefits on this one definitely outweigh the costs barring other unforeseen factors including the price of gas and the price of propane. But if you don’t drive much like me, I would not recommend buying one of those doodads based on cost alone. However, if you are trying to save the earth you should buy one for yourself and a friend.

Posted byUnknown at 11:43 PM  

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