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Railway says fuel savings inspired LNG test
Fuel Fix ^ | March 6, 2013 | Zain Shauk

Posted on 03/07/2013 9:12:05 AM PST by thackney

he nation’s largest railway decided to test out liquefied natural gas as a fuel for locomotives because the cost savings appeared too great to ignore, its CEO said Wednesday.

“It comes down to the spread relationship between LNG and diesel,” said BNSF CEO Matt Rose, speaking at the IHS CERAWeek energy conference at the Hilton Americs-Houston in downtown. “Once you get that in your head you can make that decision pretty quickly.”

BNSF has been studying the possibility of natural gas for locomotives for 18 months, focusing on the opportunity for saving on fuel. The company burns 1.3 billion gallons of diesel per year.

Shell, which announced plans Tuesday to build small-scale LNG plants targeted at U.S. truck, marine and railway uses, says the switch can save companies about 30 percent in fuel costs.

BNSF will be testing six modified locomotives, three from Caterpillar and three made by GE.

But refueling infrastructure will remain a hurdle for the system’s adoption, as well regulatory hurdles, since using LNG on a locomotive will require a return to a relic of a bygone era: tender cars.

Cars full of gas will trail the locomotives to provide fuel, much like tender cars used for steam engines.

The potential shift to natural gas could be just as significant as the prior revolution in train propulsion that brought about the rise of diesel, Rose said.

“This is a really big idea but its truly laced with all sorts of challenges,” he said.

BNSF plans to test and evaluate the locomotives this year, and then to make a decision in 2014 about whether it will begin to switch its fleet of more than 6,900 locomotives to natural gas.

Fort Worth-based BNSF, which has more than 41,000 employees and more than 32,500 miles of track, is owned by Berkshire Hathaway.

The company is a major player in the oil industry, transporting more than 571,000 barrels of oil per day in February and expecting to grow that rate to more than 700,000 barrels per day by the end of this year.

It is active in most shale plays.

BNSF first tested natural gas as a fuel for locomotives on a small stretch of contained track in the 1980s.

The company is making a new push to test liquefied natural gas after Canadian National Railway, which began a trial with natural gas in September.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: energy; lng; naturalgas
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To: okie01

That only address the federal 24.4¢/gal tax. The state rules may differ for their fuel excise tax.


21 posted on 03/07/2013 11:47:54 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: thackney
If I read Chapter 1 Fuel Taxes Page 7 of the following correctly, that tax applies to trains as well.

Odd. One would think that diesel fuel for locomotives would be treated like farm diesel. I wonder what the justification is. Or if they even bothered to come up with one...

22 posted on 03/07/2013 12:12:02 PM PST by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
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To: okie01

Or if they even bothered to come up with one...

BTTT


23 posted on 03/07/2013 12:22:33 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: Slump Tester
Once everything gets converted, the maintenance savings would be astronomical.
I’m assuming that the conversion is of a diesel engine from straight diesel fuel to lean-mixture natural gas ignited by pilot charge of diesel oil. While that’s highly economical based on the low price of natural gas, it also is a very efficient process thermodynamically. And since the combustion of carbureted air is smoother than the combustion of injected fuel oil, I suppose there is the potential for maintenance savings because of the lack of “diesel knock”. Are there other maintenance savings?

24 posted on 03/07/2013 1:28:43 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion
I was thinking how much cleaner it would burn. And I remember what my auto mechanics teacher in high school always said - "Most diesel engine failures originate in the fuel tank."

Then throw government/EPA regulation in on the diesel fuel and do the math.

I know asphalt plants here that switched to natural gas from burning fuel oil saved enough in maintenance costs in the first year or so to negate the cost of the conversion. That's external combustion, but their burners lasted way longer and didn't need constant upkeep.

25 posted on 03/07/2013 2:26:18 PM PST by Slump Tester (What if I'm pregnant Teddy? Errr-ahh -Calm down Mary Jo, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)
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To: thackney
Since LNG first has to be vaporized, then the methane diluted to 15% concentration before it can be ignited, there is no way to explode and LNG tanker.

But if there was an accident and the tanker developed a crack it might incinerate an entire town.

26 posted on 03/07/2013 3:49:01 PM PST by wideminded
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To: wideminded
But if there was an accident and the tanker developed a crack it might incinerate an entire town.

No way. Methane is significantly lighter than air. If you had a leak, the LNG first has to warm up to boil off as vapor. By the time it mixed to 85% air / 15% methane, it is up in the air.

27 posted on 03/08/2013 6:46:00 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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