CNG/ dual fuel conversions ?

A retired pipeline contractor friend of mine has several oil/gas wells on his farms with unlimited (for his personal use anyway) natural gas available.

He's interested in putting dual fuel kits on several of his pickups & even approached me about setting up a small 4 cyl truck for my 16 yo. son (who's good friends with him & deer hunts the property) so he can fill up there too.

Anyone on here have any experience with CNG powered vehicles & know of a good source for a compressor ?

The compressors we looked at cost about $5000 & take overnight to fill about 10 gallons of CNG gasoline equivalent. To make any backup volume so it wouldn't take forever to fill the vehicles, the smaller compressor would have to run almost 24/7.

These $5000 dollar compressors claim a 6000 hour life, but some quick math figuring 20 hours/day run time & 300/days means the $5000 compressor would be worn out in less than a year...........not really saving any money what so ever by using free natural gas after the costs to convert the vehicles & buying the compressor, etc.

Any FF members out in the field using CNG powered vehicles that can enlighten me with any info would be great.

Thanks

Tom

If it was practical and cost effective the pipeline companies like Dominion and Columbia transmission would be running it. We have not reached that point because the feds decided windmills and solar were the way to go.

in my mind lng would be the way to go you can get much more range on a tank

A new CNG fueling point is opening here in town very soon. What's interesting is the owner also owns an Acura dealership who happens to sell CNG fueled vehicles. Very smart move in my mind.

OhioTC18 said:

A new CNG fueling point is opening here in town very soon. What's interesting is the owner also owns an Acura dealership who happens to sell CNG fueled vehicles. Very smart move in my mind.

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Smith dairy products in Orrville Ohio just put in a CNG fueling station & is going to slowly change their delivery fleet over to all CNG vehicles. Their fueling station is open to the public (It opened last Wednesday...........We attended their open house at the site & gathered as much info from the various company reps as we could).

They had CNG available there for public fueling @ $1.95/GGE (gasoline gallon equivalent) already including all taxes at that price. Only problem is it's 15 miles the wrong way from my house & I travel the exact opposite direction to my shop every day.

Most of the company (CNG) reps there were only talking about new dedicated CNG installations, not the bi-fuel retrofits that we're interested in.

The problem right now here in Ohio is the total lack of additional fueling stations............something the fleet owners don't need to worry about since their vehicles return to base every evening.

That's why a bi-fuel retrofit would suit my friends needs better.........he could fuel CNG at his shop & if he ran out on the road, just switch back to gasoline till he got back if he exceeded the range of the CNG system's tank capacity.

We just need to come up with a cost effective compressor to do it.

I really want to do a Ford Expedition dual CNG/gasoline vehicle but just can't figure out how to do it. Send the vehicle half way across the country to get it done, not sure about repair service after that.

As for running CNG, I have a friend who runs a CNG fleet of light duty vehicles. He loves it. Costs are WAY LOWER for operating.

If you do CNG with your own pump then you pay even lower rates because you don't pay any road fuel tax if you pump your home CNG into your vehicle tank.

Melensdad said:

I really want to do a Ford Expedition dual CNG/gasoline vehicle but just can't figure out how to do it. Send the vehicle half way across the country to get it done, not sure about repair service after that.

As for running CNG, I have a friend who runs a CNG fleet of light duty vehicles. He loves it. Costs are WAY LOWER for operating.

If you do CNG with your own pump then you pay even lower rates because you don't pay any road fuel tax if you pump your home CNG into your vehicle tank.

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Till the revenuers (aka the red diesel police) come knocking on your door.............

TOMLESCOEQUIP said:

Till the revenuers (aka the red diesel police) come knocking on your door.............

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The advantage of using a duel fuel vehicle.

We use CNG lifts at work and they are great maintenance on the motor is about nil keep oil in them and they run.

Our our fill station is 2 50hp compressors to about 4500psi and cascade system for quick fill
(2-3 minuets) with a fleet of 35 on them

After running like 20 hours a day for 4-5 years bottom ends are fine they usually need a new head or at least a valve job.
Remember that is about equal to 300,000 miles on a car.

tom

What we really need is a cng compressor that runs on cng.........win win with free gas !

TOMLESCOEQUIP said:

What we really need is a cng compressor that runs on cng.........win win with free gas !

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The company that services ours at work does have them



http://www.angienergy.com/products/reciprocating/ngsc300e.php



They are big in size alot of the North Africa and European countries have them because the electric either under devolved or high in cost.

Ironically we had one fail earlier this week and it is being torn down to see if it is repairable.

tom