Largest Engines Will be Running on Natural Gas

i'm not convienced that it's practical for automobles due to the weight of the the tanks needed contain the pressures of cng, though it may be feasable for appications you noted.

New tanks are becoming lighter, but they are more expensive.

It is most beneficial for large vehicles that use a lot of fuel, but also popular for small vehicles worldwide that are used a lot. The price is often half that of gasoline or diesel. Some USA stations are selling natural gas for around one dollar per GGE gallon gas equivalent. Usually about two dollars lower than gasoline. cngprices.com has a nice map of stations and prices in the the USA, Canada, and Europe.

"... The price is often half that of gasoline or diesel. Some USA stations are selling natural gas for around one dollar per GGE gallon gas equivalent. Usually about two dollars lower than gasoline. ..."

The US average price of regular unleaded is currently about $2.18 per gallon. This includes an average of about $0.52 in various taxes per gallon.

CNG is currently above $2 per gasoline gallon equivalent which does not include the level of road supporting taxes paid per gallon of gasoline. CNG has been pretty stable, staying close to the current price for a decade.

When you consider that gas prices include a sizeable chunk that helps to fund the government, gasoline is currently significantly cheaper than CNG.

It is logical as an oil-field fuel, but not so practical as a mobile fuel.

In may time spent in the oil field. The back up mud pump was always of a different fuel type. Mostly LPG so there will not be much to fit the equipment to run on natural gas.

Good for the trade value of those commodities, but in the long run bad for gasoline prices. Supply and demand and all that.

I guess we'll have to adapt.

i disagree. less gasolline demand = lower prices at the pump. the losers will be the speculaters that invested money in the futures market. then they're screwed.

i doubt if anyone will feel sorry for the speculators that drove the the price of gasoline up to the point that the working class could'nt afford to pay their morgage bill and lost there homes.

I am curious to see how the plan to adapt locomotives to run on LNG. At the moment the average locomotive is running a V12 4400+ Hp engine that sits directly on top of a 5300 gallon fuel tank that in many cases in already not big enough.

The newer generations of locomotive engines are now pushing the 5000+ HP mark but still the locomotive as a whole simply does not have any more physical room for a larger fuel tank.

The only rational adaptation I can see fore a typical train running 3 locomotives at 5000+ HP each would be to have them connected to an independent fuel tanker car which to match the combined fuel energy of the presently 15,000 gallons of locomotive fuel oil (not your common diesel fuel BTW) they will be needing to pull one or more 30,000+ gallon tanker cars of LNG behind them.

You are correct. The fuel is in a separate car behind the engine(s).

1726.http://www.brandonsun.com/lifestyles/breaking-news/cn-testing-natural-ga
s-fired-locomotives-in-oilsands-rail-corridor-171565521.html?thx=y

The Russians have the most powerful locomotive in the world running on natural gas, airplanes, and a helicopter. American railroad companies have experimented with LNG locomotives. There is a company working on conversions also. There is no real reason not to do this, the savings are too great.

That's basically what I envisioned!

Now I hope BNSF does not change all their locomotives over to natural gas or I will be out of my high paying low work load high school dropout skill level job.

Unless of course my company gets the contract to pump the LNG instead of diesel fuel.

(I may need a raise though. Pumping LNG sounds like something that could be perceived as being more complicated although it's probably not.)

More on locomotives, and aircraft.http://indrus.in/articles/2012/09/06/russian_lng-powered_trains_on_the_way_17463.html

Some loco locomotives here:

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/locoloco.htm

A sample:

will there be explosion risks?.

A little more dangerous than diesel, but no more so than gasoline. Tanks are usually bullet and crash proof.

There have been few natural gas explosions as it is lighter than air whereas gasoline is much more likely to cause a fire in a crash. Leaking natural gas goes up when possible, not on the road. It requires a high concentration to ignite.

Better to just use the natural gas as fuel for electric generation and make everything electric...

...."CALSTART says that the surge is coming from a combination of market demand, policies and economics as EV battery costs continue to drop. Big companies such as Amazon, IKEA, UPS and FedEx are making big purchases (or working with partners to make purchases). But cities across the United States are also buying EVs, including electric transit buses, garbage trucks and pickup trucks."...

Does not require a very high concentration. Natural gas (mostly methane) has an LEL of around 5% by volume in air and a UEL of around 17% in air.

LEL - lower explosive limit.

UEL - upper explosive limit.

In Adelade, South Australia there are in excess of 200 buse running on CNG plus many delivery trucks and vans. Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane all have buses and other vehicles running on CNG.The first 10 buses in Adelaide to run on CNG was in 1988

The following companies manufacture GNG engines and/or vehicles in their factories:

MAN, Iveco, Mercedes, Volvo, Cummins, Caterpillar, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, Toyota, Hino, Nissan, Honda and Mazda. There are probably others as well

San diego, California has lots of CNG buses, the tank sits on their roof and covers almost the whole roof of the bus. another advantage: virtually pollution free!

Companies, who run a fleet of trucks are changing over right now. A changeover kit costs about $35.000. Reported calculations indicate 1 year payback in fleet operation. These outfits have their own pumping stations. Adding NG pumps to public gas stations is magnitude(s) larger undertaking.

Conversion kits are available for private user too. In the midwest and California I saw many small and large block chevy engines pumping ground water, running on piped in LNG (or city?) gas.

For some reason a rapid fill CNG station costs a lot more than an LNG station. Home pumps are supposed to eventually go down to about $2,000. It will be worth it because you will be getting a gasoline equivalent gallon for about $.80 plus the electricity to run the pump. You will also have to pay for installation of the pump. California has lots of CNG stations though. See cngprices.com

Natural gas is playing an important part in the economies of the world. If you want lots of information check out my blog:http://ronwagnersrants.blogspot.com Natural gas is the future of energy. It is replacing dirty, dangerous, expensive coal and nuclear plants. It is producing the electricity for electric cars. It will directly fuel cars,pickup trucks, vans, buses, long haul trucks, dump trucks, locomotives, aircraft, ships etc. It will keep us out of more useless wars, where we shed our blood and money. Over 1,800 natural gas story links on my blog. An annotated bibliography. The big picture of natural gas.