Posted on 03/07/2012 5:42:45 AM PST by thackney
More natural gas-powered vehicles will hit the market soon, as rising gasoline prices, booming natural gas production and proposed tax credits make them a more attractive option. But theyre a long way from being a common sight in U.S. driveways.
Chrysler will sell a Ram 2500 Heavy Duty pickup that runs on compressed natural gas starting in July. The truck has both a gasoline tank and a natural gas storage tank, and its engine shifts seamlessly between the two power sources. The truck can run for 255 miles on natural gas and another 367 miles using gasoline.
Chrysler will have competition. Late this year, General Motors Co. will sell natural-gas versions of two pickups the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 2500 HD. The GM trucks will run on gasoline and natural gas for 650 miles. Ford Motor Co. has offered natural-gas ready pickups and vans since 2009.
That may have been the case with mechanical fuel injection, but it ain't so with electronic controls. I've run prototype fuel systems on diesel engines in dyno cells running on a 90/10 mix of CNG and diesel, and there's no power loss relative to straight diesel. You need to keep a little shot of diesel to light the mix, but the majority of the power comes from the gas.
Hogwash, you absolutely can run CNG or propane in a diesel engine with a properly engineered system. I was doing it ten years ago. Dual fuel, diesel/CNG or propane systems are a viable reality that save money.
It sounds like you are talking about some kind of aftermarket bolt on hot rod kit.
Slow one, the last time I checked you boiled water and turned it into steam to turn a turbine to produce electricity, if you have a different way I am all ears.
Cannot, unless you have a way to lower the compression ratio. The flashpoint is the flash point. Put some gas in your diesel and see what happens.
Do you understand how the electronic diesel injector works, it still is a pressure system, it just uses an electrical switch to open the injector. So how do you compress the gas and the diesel and control the mix.
We have used Natural Gas Combustion Turbines for power generation and other uses for many decades.
And what does the most plants use, steam, boiling water.
You talk like this is some theory. Diesel engine manufacturer have offered dual fuel systems with Natural Gas for decades. I have participated in the engineering/construction/startup of these in remote locations for the past two decades for oil/gas industry.
One example of some bigger dual fuel engines:
http://www.wartsila.com/en/power-plants/power-generation/dual-fuel-power-plants
Most Natural Gas plants are combustion turbines. They may use steam or hot water as secondary waste heat recovery. These combined cycle power plants with a primary combustion turbine are more efficient than a straight steam turbine power plant.
Development of High Efficiency
Gas Turbine Combined Cycle
Power Plant
http://www.mhi.co.jp/technology/review/pdf/e451/e451015.pdf
Smaller peaker plants used to cycle on and off as load changes or other power plants trip off-line are typically straight combustion turbine without the steam section.
The mixture is controlled by controlling fuel rail pressure, and having calibrated fuel injectors for each cylinder. A realtime control system resolves the crankshaft position continuously. Fuel timings and quantities are controlled by when the injector is opened relative to each pistons position in its cycle, and how long it is held open. There are A LOT of other factors involved, but that's it in a nutshell
CNG and propane can work well in diesel engines. If the current boon in natural gas continues and the eco-weenies don't put a clamp on it, it'll be a good direction to go.
Yes and if you read it it says gasoline engine.
Yes sir there is the good old steam turbine right there at the bottom of your little drawing.
Wärtsilä dual-fuel power plants are based on engines that are able to run on natural gas, light fuel oil, heavy fuel oil or a number of other liquid fuels, offering the ultimate in fuel flexibility.
The installation of their engines I worked on was natural gas or diesel. The idea was to normally run them on natural gas as we did not have a market for it yet in the south side of the Rub' al Khali (Arabian empty quarter). It cost us crude oil to make the diesel but we needed the back-up fuel source.
I guess you never head of simple cycle gas turbines. There are thousands of them out there operating right now making electricity. We have been using them for over 60 years now. Most can run on either natural gas or oil.
Yes, the smaller generator is run by a steam turbine. I made no claim they did not exist, just they are the minority of Natural Gas power generation.
Would you like a another picture of a combustion turbine to help you understand what it is?
You have a fuel rail in an old mechinical system, after that they were controlled by a rotary injector pump, have one of those on my case tractor. electronic enjectors have oil pressure to fire them around 3500+ psi, the same amount of pressure on each injector, the fuel is run into the injector by the fuel pump, the electric switch on the top of the injector controls firing and length of firing. Have had my powerstroke apart several times. And the system is the same on all the new big trucks.
Still boiling water.
Let me help you understand the words at the link:
Dual-fuel power plant fuels and ranges:
Gaseous fuel are not gasoline, they are fuels in the gas physical property state, meaning not liquid, like natural gas.
If you will then click on the fuel specification selection below the image, it state:
epending on power plant solution Wärtsilä engines are able to run on a wide selection of fuels, ranging from natural gas to fuel-water emulsions.
Fuels such as crude oil, fuel-water emulsions, associated gas, liquid biofuel, biogas and other fuels outside globally recognized standard fuel specifications, should be carefully analysed for each power plant project prior to use. Due to the nature of these types of fuels their quality might vary over time and consequently fuel quality analysis should be done on a regular basis.
They are not limited to only methane or diesel. We originally evaluated their engines (and others) to run on crude oil, but that created too many other problems.
sigh...
Okay, here is the simple cycle combustion turbine.
No water is boiled to make electricity. There are hundreds (thousands?) of these installed for power generation around the US over several decades.
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