Nat Gas for trains makes a lot of sense. For cars, not as much. Every bit helps though.
Looking forward to comments on this one. Can large diesel engines even be converted to NG? What about the massive fuel supply the locomotives require, and what happens when they get in a wreck? Yowzer...don’t even want to think about that one.
This is going to be a real debacle. There’s a larg enough gulf between the BTUs of diesel fuel and the BTUs of natural gas to make a significant dent in engine efficiency. With diesel, locomotives approach (and sometimes exceed) 40 percent heat efficiency; that’ll be cut a great deal (perhaps as much as half) with a switch to natural gas. Those big prime movers will now need spark plugs, too, making yet another dent in heat efficiency (more parts, more thermodynamic breakdown). Gensets have way more moving parts than the larger diesels, too (imagine doubling the number of cylinders, and then doubling the maximum revolutions per minute that the engine operates at).
Its great. If they use Natural Gas the trains will no longer be using fossil fuels.
US sourced NatGas is the fuel of the future for North America.
NatGas usage will reduce the cost of production & shipping in the USA and the money spent on NatGas will go back into our own economy, instead of fueling growth in the Middle East (where they hate us).
Go NatGas!