What is Dual Fuel?

A dual fuel vehicle is a vehicle that has a tuned system that allows the vehicle to operate on two types of fuel. The only heavily used dual-fuel system is that of the LPG/Petrol setup.

My brother, when he was at university, had an old Holden Kingswood ute that packed a fair bit of grunt. This also meant that it loved to guzzle the gas. Alongside the steering column was a switch that could be flicked two ways. When the switch was flicked upwards, it meant that the old girl would run on petrol. If it was flicked downwards, it meant that she would run on LPG. A couple of decades ago, LPG was much, much cheaper than petrol at the pump. So a lot more LPG passed through the Kingswood’s engine compared with the petrol alternative! This was my first introduction to a dual fuel vehicle.

The general consensus is that the bigger the engine size, the greater the margin for saving cash at the pump if you run a larger engine on LPG instead of the petrol alternative, which is why many people choose to install a dual fuel system.

After-market LPG/ petrol conversions can be carried out on petrol powered engines; however, they do need to be performed by professionals.

But what, you may rightly ask, are the benefits of having a dual fuel vehicle? First and foremost, the duel fuel system can help you to save considerable amounts of money in travel expenditure. Secondly, the benefit of running a dual fuel system means that you will have done your bit to help the environment stay considerably more pollutant free by reducing the volume of carbon emissions that you would otherwise release into the atmosphere. The bulk of emissions from an LPG powered motor vehicle are mostly water.

It is a matter of debate whether you could truly call Toyota’s hybrid Prius a dual fuel vehicle. Is a battery source a fuel? It could be argued that the Toyota Prius hybrid is a dual fuel beast – plainly because the battery power source still feeds the car’s engine. On the other hand, it is not a consumable product like petrol, diesel or LPG. And battery power is a reusable resource, unlike the other alternatives. If you agree with the last point, then clearly the Toyota Prius is not a dual fuel car but…a hybrid. We hope that helps answer the question ‘What is What is Dual Fuel?’!

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