Compressed Natural Gas for vehicles

Does anyone know if these gas companies and subcontractors use any compressed natural gas vehicles or do they just fill up with foreign diesel fuel?  US has Boon Pickens and corporations asking for governmental support and funding for CNG, one has to ask where the leadership is on this topic.

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Permalink Reply by mark ayers on January 16, 2011 at 5:47am
The leadership is into electric cars (coal powered) right now. Could the states and the feds reduce or eliminate the road tax for a fixed number years for nat. gas powered cars and trucks.
Permalink Reply by George Donovan on January 16, 2011 at 6:46am
I would like to see us run partialy on natural gas and part gasoline simutaniously. We are currently running Alchol mixed with our gas,why cant we have a part time cng mixed into the air intake. The computer would keep the air-fuel mixture correct. If you have nat gas partialy in the stream it would cut the gasoline use down,hopefully saving gasoline and money.You could also do this with the diesel trucks. Save money when you have nat gas and run the other fuels when you don't.
Permalink Reply by michael weston on March 1, 2012 at 8:24am

You could also do this with the diesel trucks.

Some yes and some no. Diesel fuel ignites spontaneously when sprayed into the combustion chamber when the air as been compressed sufficiently; gas can't be compression ignited. Needs a sparkplug for ignition, with lower compression ratio. Spark ignition is much less efficient. Drivable range with cng is far too low.

One way to burn gas with the efficiency of diesel (or close to) is to compression ignite it using a little diesel as pilot ignition to "start the combustion".  This is the mixing you mention. It's being experimented today. But you can't do away with the diesel altogether. 

One solution would to be to make dimethyl ether (DME) from natural gas at the wellhead. DME compression ignites without diesel pilot but burns like gas without soot meaning no exhaust emission aftertreatment is needed. :)  And, energy density is high enough you can put fuel enough on the truck to do a day's work. 

Permalink Reply by Anthony T on January 26, 2012 at 10:34am

i love the hype over the "green" cars, being the electric/hybrids, but as you stated, that "green" electricity  comes from mining and burning coal, which releases harmful chemicals into the environment.  Not to mention the batteries needed in those specific cars are EXTREMELY harmful to the environment, and use a MASSIVE amount of fossil fuels/"dirty energy" to manufacture.  Coal mines DESTROY the environment whereas Natural gas well pads only take up 15-20 acres MAX and are reclaimed to like quality once drilling operations have stopped.  So basically, in my opinion and from what ive heard from colleagues ect, those so called "green cars" are actually more detrimental to the environment then regular Gasoline and ESPECIALLY CNG cars.

Permalink Reply by craig on January 16, 2011 at 6:58am

There is no leadership on this topic in my humble opinion.

I believe that the quickest/best way, and possibly the only way, to get more natural gas vehicles on the road is for the natural gas industry itself to get involved. These companies need to make this an issue and point out all the benefits to our country if we were to use more natural gas vehicles. Infrastructure is mostly in place as well (how many houses heat/cook with NG?).  Pickens has it right.

Mark, I am not in favor of tax breaks to help NG, or most anything. 'New' technology needs to stand on its own two feet. There is plenty of money to be made in the NG industry if we were to move a portion of our vehicles to NG. The companies know this, and they need to act now! They need to invest their profits, to increase their future bottom lines.

The one important item the politicians need to deal with to level the playing field for all types of vehicles is how they collect the road use tax as a liquid fuel tax, ie per gallon, not miles of roadway used. This in and of itself is contrary to common business/economic sense. Taxing fuels by the gallon has become archaic. We need to move to a mileage driven based tax for using our roadways. Everyone should share in the upkeep of our roadways, regardless of how they propel themselves down the pavement. Of course right now all electric vehicles will pay NO road use tax (i believe), which is how the gov't can influence the social change they want. 

 

 

Permalink Reply by mark ayers on January 16, 2011 at 10:30am
The attention it would bring to the issue is worth more then the tax break. Debating and passing this kind of legislation would raise awareness about the potential of this resource and maybe further it's development.
Permalink Reply by Bill Gunner on January 16, 2011 at 10:51am
National Fuel (local gas utility) has been using CNG vehicles for years, assume other utilities are the same, there is an outfit in Buffalo that does the conversions, the fed gov't also uses switchable fuel vehicles, a local guy has one he bought at a gov't auction, uses nat gas from his shallow well most of the time, flips a switch on the dashboard to switch to gasoline if he has to go more than 200 miles, small compressors are available for home use
Permalink Reply by Mike Knapp on January 18, 2011 at 3:56am
Chesapeake Energy has been doing a LOT to push CNG.   They are working with local gas stations to install CNG refueling apparatus and guaranteeing a certain amount of usage or something along those lines.   A google search would probably bring the story up.
Permalink Reply by Daniel Rupert on January 18, 2011 at 6:11am
Leadership is absent...period!The commodity is in huge supply and the reserves are unimaginable!The economy would grow much faster if we were using our home grown resources more wisely and not transferring our wealth to foriegn oil producing companies/countries!There is always more to a story than meets ones eye...why are we being stupid,ignorant and reactive to the large supply of natural gas.Chesapeake and EQT are leading the way when it comes to using CNG for a transportation fuel...just imagine if our local,state and federal fleets of vehicles were to switch...what about the trucking industry...what about us 308,000,000 Americans!The proper exploration,development and most importantly use of natural gas is paramount...I hope we as a country capitalize on the opportunity under our nose!
Permalink Reply by Mike Knapp on January 18, 2011 at 9:17am

Dan,

 

We will eventually.   I know it's frustrating, and I'm 100% in agreeance with you on this issue.   There is legislation in the works right now that would put a CNG refueling station every other exit on the Turnpike and would switch the fleet of state owned vehicles over to CNG.    I know these are baby steps but it's a good start.  

Permalink Reply by Daniel Rupert on January 18, 2011 at 11:10am
I agree Mike...I hope our state legislators follow through on this great idea...maybe our federal legislators will follow! I hope all is well with you and your company...I wish you guys all the best with your current marketing efforts!I always wish the best for everyone...life is short!Take care!
Permalink Reply by Mike Knapp on January 19, 2011 at 4:23am

We're still hammering away as usual. Thanks for the kind words and I hope your situation works itself out for the best.   And good luck with your landowner group if that's still on the table!

 

-Mike

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