question about natural gas powered buses

  • Thread starter Thread starter land sea air
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land sea air

land sea air

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United States
Gaithersburg/MD
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landseaair
on the way to work today I noticed several of our local RIDE ON buses parked at a station, nothing out of the ordinary except I noticed all the ones that are "the clean alternative" (powered by natural gas) had metal strips underneath that were touching the ground... I,m sure this has something to do with static or the need for a ground but I just wanted to know their exact purpose and what would happen if one of the strips was ripped off or something... It's just something thats been nagging me ever since this morning.:ouch:
 
Yes, they are grounding (or 'earthing' to the UK contingent). Compressed Natural Gas is highly explosive compared to the usual diesel (drop a match in a beaker of diesel, and it will go right out). Therefore the buses are continually grounded to avoid static buildup and sparks.
 
I'm sure they serve the same purpose as the little metal strips in F1 pits. Keep static electricity away from a vehicle and the risk of an explosion causing fire is greatly reduced.
 
IMO that's fairly unsafe. A terrorist organization could sneak in somewhere and remove the strips, causing a real safety hazard.
 
That makes sense... in the pits at an ALMS race i noticed that the fuel guy was wearing some wierd contraption on his boots with a wire dragging on the ground.
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