Was talking to an employee of our local natural gas supplier at the diesel pump the other day. I jokingly told him that he was at the wrong pump. Implying he should be driving a CNG powered truck. He proceeded to tell me that they were just waiting for a certified diesel to CNG conversion kit. He said his buddy that drives a duramax has a kit on his that burns up to 70% CNG. Supposedly gets 35 mpg. He said it has a device that leans the mixture to control EGTs. He said he "heard" of a dodge getting 50 mpg or so.

Is any of this true? Would love to pay $1.60/gal rather than $3.60/gal.

 

I wouldn't doubt it......

Warren Buffett has Berkshire spending big money on natural gas fueled locomotives and Clean Energy has been pushing for Natural gas powered OTR's for years since we are the "Saudi Arabia of Nat Gas". The biggest hurdle seems to be getting all the fueling stations on line to make it feasable. But there were a few F-350's on Jim Cramer's Mad Money show that had Nat Gas conversion kits installed.

 

I don't know about 35mpg I don't Se the btu energy been in that much higher.
I don't dough that it could run it.

 

Were these 350's originally running gasoline or diesel?

 

I agree I thought diesel had the highest BTU. Unless the natural gas causes the diesel to burn that much more efficient. But I have a hard time beleiving 35 as well. However even if it was 25 on our trucks it would be worth looking into.

 

I'm sure they're getting 35 mpg on diesel, but how many GGE's of CNG are they burning in the process?

 

Besides the infrastructural availability of the fuel from pumps that can dispense it within reasonable fill times... the availability, cost, certification (and eventual recertification?) of the on board pressure vessels is one of the largest hurdles. I wanted to convert one of my vehicles that was already permitted by the Air Resources Board to run dual fuel Gas/CNG... the quote was $15,000, the bulk of which was for the pressure tanks to carry enough CNG to approximate a decent range.

Another issue is temperature. The range of a CNG burning vehicle is DRAMATICALLY influenced by ambient temps.

 

I had a conversation with a truck driver recently who was driving a natural gas rig. It was a bob tail that delivered goods from Dallas to San Antonio everyday. In short, HE HATES driving the rig. He said it won't go over 60mph loaded, and the smallest hill gets him to 40mph. He said the same rig burning diesel had no such problems, and he could accelerate up any hill on his route while fully loaded.

 

That's a tank of CNG however much that is. I think he said about 200 miles. They did not have to fill diesel at that point.

I live in OKC where we have a decent CNG structure . there are quite a few CNG vehicles and a few conversion companies. Not saying I am going to or want to do it. Just thought it was an interesting topic to explore.

 

When I was running propane there were modest savings to be made in fuel costs as long as I could get propane for about half the price of diesel. Would have taken hundreds of thousands of miles to recover the cost of the system, though.

I don't believe there is any increased efficiency of burn of the diesel over a good condition engine on straight diesel though.

 

Our city transit system runs the busses on CNG, at first they were converted diesels but now they are buying them with CNG engines. During the financial collapse in 2008 they returned many of the converted ones to diesel citing it was cheaper to operate on diesel, but none of the articles bragging about our commitment to clean air mentions that little tidbit.


About Sun Tran : History - Sun Tran - Tucson, AZ

 

i have heard truck drivers also complain about range. not being able to go quite as far as a diesel equivalent. which exacerbates the problem of refueling infrastructure.

a local garbage company did the research on converting their transfer trucks to CNG. they found that in one days run (granted its a long run and permits for 120,000 lbs. gross) they could not run from their transfer station to the landfill and back even once without running out of fuel. there were no viable places to buy fuel in between so they scratched the idea.

diesel and gas store very cheaply as a liquid. propane even stores as a liquid and evaporates off as a gas. natural gas has to have an expensive pressure vessel for any kind of range.

in american culture, we drive too far and too often right now to buy into vehicles where range is the short fall.

it may work well for short haul (day run) truck drivers and many personal vehicles. but i dont see it for OTR or salesmen or anything.

at least the range is way better than a true electric cars. those cars may never catch on in our country. somewhere else maybe, but not here.