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Abstract Air pollution is one of the important problems facing the world so; many studies have begun focusing on sources of air pollution that comes from its different sources specially from motor vehicles. Motor vehicles are the most important sources of air pollution, and increasing their number and traffic density led to increase the problem. Three main methods used to reduce pollution from motor vehicles. The first is engine design and modification. The second is exhaust gas treatment. The third is using alternative fuels. The last is an important and a modern trend to reduce the harmful emissions from vehicles particularly for Egypt when the petrol wells are close to finish. There are many types of alternative fuels such as natural gas, alcohol, hydrogen, ethanol, methanol, and many other kinds. In this study, natural gas has been chosen as an alternative fuel due to the huge quantities found in Egypt. In this research, a vehicle has been prepared to work with two types of fuels, gasoline as a basic fuel and natural gas as an alternative fuel. The main aim of the study is to show the influence of natural gas if it is used as an alternative fuel on exhaust emissions. Also, a suggested driving cycle for Minia city has been made using both fuels. Several tests were carried out on the vehicle to measure exhaust emissions using both the fuels. The preliminary tests had been carried out at idling mode at different engine speeds. Another test was carried out at low vehicle speeds using chassis dynamometer to simulate resistance that come from rolling resistance. In addition, a real road test was conducted on a climbing road at full throttle. The last test was aimed to create a driving cycle for Minia city using a gasoline and natural gas. In all experiments, results showed that the amount of pollution components of (CO, CO2 and HC) from the measured vehicle in the case of natural gas is lower than those measured in the case of gasoline. In case of idling mode, the results showed that pollutants generated when using compressed natural gas were lowered than gasoline emissions by about 72.359%, 93.95%, and 15.785% for Carbon Monoxide CO, Hydrocarbon HC and Carbon Dioxide CO2 respectively. At chassis dynamometer test, it showed lower CO emissions by about 91.08%, HC and CO2 emissions values decreased than gasoline emissions by about 44.315% and 3.86% respectively. In the climbing road, similar results were obtained for emissions. CO, HC, and CO2 were lower by about 84.4%, 32.519%, and 19.663% respectively. The suggested driving cycle of Minia city when the vehicle fuelled by natural gas showed lower emissions either. The average lower values for CO, HC, and CO2 were lower by about 38.82%, 79.43%, and 14.45% respectively. Also, experiments have shown that the rate of fuel consumption in the case of natural gas is less than in the case of gasoline by 28.82%. Hence, it is recommended to widely using natural gas as alternative fuel instead of gasoline. |