Natural Gas Debates

[pastortom1]

I'm not sure this should be in this area, but I'll give it a shot.

With all the hoopla about oil and telling the Saudi's and Venezuela to go pound salt (which I would LOVE to see happen..), Natural Gas is in the spotlight.

There are 2 types however, and the proponents of both say it's the best.

In Utah (so I read this morning), old natural gas burning cars are a REALLY hot item right now........and there are stations that dispense CNG (compressed natural gas) for what amounts to 87 Cents a gallon.........

I had a school bus years ago that was converted to run on propane. Very common conversion. All of our local propane trucks ran on the same....the stuff was CLEAN. It didn't look like a very complicated system either.

I'm wondering for our own sakes as enthusiasts who are interested in keeping up on these developments, just what would be involved in converting a Mopar engine to run on either CNG, or LNG (liquid natural gas).

It seems that since there are cars already running on it, and our history of using propane too, there MUST be available tech for us to tap into for the future.

Any of you guys have the knowledge to give us some good tech on this subject? :read2:

 

[70aarcuda]

one thing to look into is the BTU of cng as compared to gasoline...where i worked we had cng trucks and they could only go 100 miles on a full tank...our propane trucks went about 300 miles on a tank....

you are going to burn alot more cng than gasoline....plus the cost of the conversion....how many miles do you need to drive to break even.???

 

[pauly v.100]

i've looked into this somewhat, 70aarcuda is correct. long hauls are a problem with low availability for cng nationwide compared to regular gas stations. utah is leading the way on this with a growing cng infrastructure. they also have capped the price of cng in utah, so elsewhere its usually higher.

companies are marketing in-home fueling stations for those areas using natural gas for home use. they run around 4k.
kits for converting vehicles are widely available, but only a handful are domestically made, stick with them. they can run from 1k on up.
the most expensive part of the conversion is the tank. it CANNOT be substituted for anything but a federally certified cng specific tank(s). they're the most expensive part and they use up alot of trunk space.
the kits for carbureted cars are much easier to install and will be much more effective than a newer computer managed car.



the mileage you get with cng is about comparable than gas with the obvious benfits to the earth and air, the difference, as i understand it (which is very little), has something to do with the densities of the two fuels. there are kits available which allow you to switch from one fuel to the other at the flip of a switch.


..some links:

http://www.impco.ws/
http://cngoutfitters.com/
http://ngvchat.com/

 

[Bigmacdak]

We have has CNG stations around here for years. As a matter of fact I can remember being 7 or 8 years old asking my dad why the other pump had funny nozzels on it. I have known some guys that had CNG trucks & they all said what 70aarcuda said. You cant get any kind of distance out of them. They run fine, but you need a HUGE tank in order to make a long trip. They were mostly city owned vehicles that just made short trips around town, so it worked out good & saved the city some money as well...

 

[71Duster]

Main issue with natural gas in vehicles is capacity. It's not a BTU issue but the fact natural gas runs a much higher rate of compression in the tank then propane.

I had to learn it in school but don't remember my numbers right now.

 

[djwhog]

Good for WY we have more GAS than almost the entire US combined. Again though, we need to be allowed to tap it too. But yes you need to jet and have lines tank etc for the Nat Gas it is diff than propane but is an easy conversion..

Good stop gap, but regardless, there is enough oil in WY, Col, and N&S Dak to run the us at least 150 + years. Then there is Coal, we have more coal in WY and MT than the entire planet combined. We have more geothermo activity in WY , more Dynasour findings etc in this state etc than anywher in US.

DC folks need to learn a little abou tthis sate, we also are the major wate source of the Colorado river, it is called the Green river.

Man people need to learn about what is in the US it would amaze U! Nat Gas is a good bridge I say go for it too!