This report intends to develop guidelines for the implementation of alternative transport fuels. There are at least 35 million vehicles world wide already operating on some form of alternative transport fuel and many millions more that are fuelled by blends with conventional gasoline and diesel or powered by electricity.

Many alternative fuel programs are being, or have been, implemented mostly in response to the oil price increases that have occurred over the last decade, the desire to increase energy security and concerns about urban air pollution. Despite the current economic downturn, it is expected that the uptake of alternative transport fuels will continue to increase. The alternative transport fuels that have been, or are likely to be, produced in one or more Asia-Pacific Economic Cooporation (APEC) economies include:

• Natural gas, including compressed and liquefied natural gas (CNG and LNG) and biomethane,
• Autogas (LPG used as an automotive fuel),
• Alcohols (ethanol and methanol),
• Biodiesel,
• Hydrogen,
• Electricity.

Petroleum fuels produced from natural gas and coal via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, or other chemical processes, are also included.

For the purposes of this report prepared by the NZ Energy Planning Consultants Ltd, which is intended to develop guidelines for the implementation of alternative transport fuels, only those fuels that have been introduced on a commercial scale have been studied in depth. Thus, while recognising that hydrogen and fuel cells, for example, may well be the fuel and fuel system of the future they have not yet been introduced into the market so few lessons can be learned from their commercialization.

Read the report here: Alternative transport fuels: Implementation guidelines