Posted on 11/19/2014 5:27:49 AM PST by thackney
While everyone is watching to see how low oil prices will affect U.S. shale drillers, natural gas production continues to rise. Each month, the U.S. posts new production highs (see chart), and 2014 is shaping up to be a record year for natural gas drillers. With production ratcheting upwards, the U.S. has been able to achieve record levels of storage injections, building back inventories after last winter walloped the east coast and depleted supplies.
The abundance of natural gas is allowing utilities to increasingly burn the fuel in power plants for electricity a well-known trend that continues to accelerate.
But another sector also stands to benefit the transportation sector. In particular, natural gas is likely to become a serious option for transportation fuels, particularly as an alternative to diesel in long haul trucking or in shorter fleet operations. It can either come in the form of compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG).
There are several advantages that natural gas has over traditional diesel or gasoline powered vehicles First natural gas can be a lot cheaper on an energy equivalent basis, generally a little more than $2 per gallon. There was certainly a much bigger disparity in prices earlier this year when gasoline prices cost more than $4 per gallon, but there is still a financial gain to be had (see chart below from U.S. Department of Energy). Moreover, crude oil prices wont stay this
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
CNG is great.
Cheaper.
Almost the same range as octane.
Can fill up at home. Wake up every morning with a full tank.
Fewer engine problems.
Problems:
Except New York state, CNG stations are rare.
If you run out of CNG, you have to have your car towed
I think they are more common in Oklahoma or California, compared to NY.
It isn't a great choice for all location. But it is in some locations, for some people.
The opened up a station very close to me, Southwest Houston. We drive by it a couple times a week. I'm going to look hard at a dual-fuel set-up for the next truck.
>>I dont think you want a fuel tank that needs to be maintained at -260°F<<
Ok...I’ll bite. lol Are you saying that the tank on your vehicle must be cooled to -260F? If so, never heard that before.
For LNG, not CNG.
They use a heavily insulated tank. You get cooling from auto-refrigeration as the vapor boils off from the liquid while you are using fuel. If you use it fast enough, you maintain the cold temperature of the fuel that was put in the tank.
You only use the vapor, not the liquid. LNG will not even ignite. You have to vaporize it, then mix with air down to a 5~15% concentration.
When you stop consuming sufficient fuel, the fuel begins to warm. As the vapor boils off, pressure in the tank will rise. Tanks are rated to contain ~5 days of boil off before they need to start venting, based upon reasonable temperature.
LNG is fine for Fleet Service vehicles that run a lot of miles and come back to a service center. You can carry more LNG energy than the same space of CNG tanks. Locomotives are starting to use LNG as well as ships.
But I think it is a bad choice for the individual. CNG makes more sense to me.
I’ve always said that I’d do a natural gas pickup if and when they became available and the infrastructure was put into place.
Did a lil research...It’s just not ready
I would not want to depend on CNG only myself.
But for $315, Ford will add to a F250/350
The CNG/LPG Fuel Capable Engine Package for Super Duty includes:
Hardened Engine Intake Valves and Valve Seats
Bi-fuel Manifold
I expect to get ready for a dual fuel that way. Pricing for the CNG add on will come down with more competition.
LNG makes the most sense for trucks and other high-usage commercial vehicles.
The truck conversion kits enable trucks to be "dual fuel", diesel/LNG. The truck would run on LNG (the engine needs a little bit of diesel mixed in for proper operation) until the LNG tank runs dry, then continue on diesel. If long-haul trucks are made LNG-ready first, then you would just need LNG pumps at truck stops every few hundred miles on major interstates.
Give it time.
That chart is probably out of date, given how fast CNG stations are being installed.
Secondly, this is how things work in a free market, with no taxpayer dollars to support installing these everywhere, like solar panels or windmills.
The more stations, the more vehicles. The more vehicles, the more stations. It will grow organically.
Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio (Marcellus/Utica Shale Play) are installing CNG fueling stations rapidly...without gov't money.
The oil & gas industry is converting to CNG trucks and is helping to drive the demand for the product they extract.
It is a wonderful example of capitalism and free markets at work.
I think the bottom line for me to switch would be cost. In the simplest sense, what would it cost me to drive 500 miles with CNG vs. gasoline.
At this point, it’s not worth it.
There’s the cost of conversion and the inconvenience of supply.
41407 BTU per dollar at $2.70 (gasoline)
35730 BTU per dollar at $2 (LNG)
At those prices, you should get ~16% more miles per dollar on gasoline.
At $3.50 a gallon of gasoline, you should get 12% more on LNG. But LNG is not a good fuel choice for an individual; also it tends to be more expensive than CNG.
Near me, I can by the same amount of CNG (same energy, same miles) at $2.05 versus $2.69 for gasoline at the same service station. I should get 30% more miles for the same dollar on CNG over gasoline.
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