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Chat Area => General Car Chat => Topic started by: Sir Tigger KC on 05 October 2013, 00:35:17

Title: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: Sir Tigger KC on 05 October 2013, 00:35:17
Spotted this article on Reuters.  With the prices of natural gas plummeting in the US due to fracking, it is starting to become viable to install a home fuelling unit to fuel your car from your home's gas supply!  :y 

The cars in the article are purpose built to run on gas, but can you convert a car to CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) in the same way as LPG?  I've seen trucks here that have been converted to CNG.  :-\
 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/04/us-naturalgas-home-refueling-insight-idUSBRE9930D120131004

Looks like it's early days, but interesting nonetheless!!  :)
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: plym ian on 05 October 2013, 00:51:54
Could be a great thing.

Only problem I could see with it is that everytime you want to fill up the tank you need a corgi registered gas fitter to do it for you ;D ;D

Also would it need a pilot light to get it going ;D
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: 05omegav6 on 05 October 2013, 04:21:23
Perfectly viable :y some of the staff buses at Gatwick ran on CNG, using vaguely modified diesel engines iirc :y

Given that lpg can also be used with diesel in diesel engines, I can't see why a spark ignition engine couldn't run on cng :-\ guess it would be a simple matter of tweaking the fuel/air mixture and spark timing as required...

Probably no real difference compared to lpg...

Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: cnj on 05 October 2013, 07:20:07
one of the large haulage/warehouse operations near us is using cng in some of their new trucks, not sure how many though !
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: tigers_gonads on 05 October 2013, 10:12:46
The Stag 300 lpg ecu's that we use already on the v6's have a setting for cng iirc.
Problem is, without compressing the fuel, your going to need one hell of a big tank to get any sort of useful range which is going to eat into the available space in the car and make it a lot heavier  :(

Would be nice if you could find a way to compress it into a tank on your property then transfer it to the car when needed  :)
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: Sir Tigger KC on 05 October 2013, 10:50:18
The Stag 300 lpg ecu's that we use already on the v6's have a setting for cng iirc.
Problem is, without compressing the fuel, your going to need one hell of a big tank to get any sort of useful range which is going to eat into the available space in the car and make it a lot heavier  :(

Would be nice if you could find a way to compress it into a tank on your property then transfer it to the car when needed  :)

That's exactly what the refuelling units in the article do, only there is no need for a tank as it compresses the gas and transfers directly into the car.  ;)
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: tigers_gonads on 05 October 2013, 10:55:34
The Stag 300 lpg ecu's that we use already on the v6's have a setting for cng iirc.
Problem is, without compressing the fuel, your going to need one hell of a big tank to get any sort of useful range which is going to eat into the available space in the car and make it a lot heavier  :(

Would be nice if you could find a way to compress it into a tank on your property then transfer it to the car when needed  :)

That's exactly what the refuelling units in the article do, only there is no need for a tank as it compresses the gas and transfers directly into the car.  ;)


I must learn to read all the article one day  ::) :-[ :P ;D
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: MR MISTER on 05 October 2013, 11:29:24
The Stag 300 lpg ecu's that we use already on the v6's have a setting for cng iirc.
Problem is, without compressing the fuel, your going to need one hell of a big tank to get any sort of useful range which is going to eat into the available space in the car and make it a lot heavier  :(

Would be nice if you could find a way to compress it into a tank on your property then transfer it to the car when needed  :)
In your garage? Would Jaime's your insurers let you do that?
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: RobG on 05 October 2013, 11:46:32
Quote
With the prices of natural gas plummeting in the US
Never going to happen in the UK
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: albitz on 05 October 2013, 14:28:43
Agreed.When Nuclear power stations were first being built we were told it would be so cheap,that it wouldn't be worth the time/expense etc to meter the electricity and send out bills. ::)
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: Rods2 on 05 October 2013, 16:18:25
If it happens in the UK then it will bring road pricing that much closer.  >:( >:( >:( >:(

The A14 is being converted for smart messaging and variable speed limits to smooth traffic flow using cables buried in the road. If it is successful then the Government are looking at installing it in a very short time limit all over the UK. Now why would they go to all the expense and do that, or did they just forget to tell us it will be used for very unpopular road pricing.  >:( >:( >:( >:(
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: Shackeng on 05 October 2013, 18:29:03
In the latest issue of 'Air & Space', they have a light a/c flying on CNG! :o
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: ronnyd on 05 October 2013, 21:44:13
The Stag 300 lpg ecu's that we use already on the v6's have a setting for cng iirc.
Problem is, without compressing the fuel, your going to need one hell of a big tank to get any sort of useful range which is going to eat into the available space in the car and make it a lot heavier  :(

Would be nice if you could find a way to compress it into a tank on your property then transfer it to the car when needed  :)
In your garage? Would Jaime's your insurers let you do that?
Wouldn,t trust the cowboy living next to me if he had the gumption to get involved with this. :o
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: Broomies Mate on 05 October 2013, 21:51:54
If it happens in the UK then it will bring road pricing that much closer.  >:( >:( >:( >:(

The A14 is being converted for smart messaging and variable speed limits to smooth traffic flow using cables buried in the road. If it is successful then the Government are looking at installing it in a very short time limit all over the UK. Now why would they go to all the expense and do that, or did they just forget to tell us it will be used for very unpopular road pricing.  >:( >:( >:( >:(

Induction loops have been used for decades!

M25, M4, M42 - I don't tend to go up north a lot, so these are the ones I know of which use induction loops to monitor traffic density and reduce speeds as and when necessary (or not necessary as it seems).
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: 05omegav6 on 05 October 2013, 21:53:53
Vosa make pretty good use of the M25 one between junctions 8 and 9 ::)
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: Lazydocker on 05 October 2013, 23:46:12
Yes cars can but the tanks, pipe work and front end are very, very expensive
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: 05omegav6 on 06 October 2013, 01:00:54
Good old supply and demand ::)
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: biggriffin on 06 October 2013, 21:45:48
Cng is being used buy the supermarkets to power there fleets, so it makes them look "green"
 Asda's new dc in Avon mouth  has a cng plant.
 wont be available to the general populas as mr tax man wont like losing out on revenue when people start buying cng plant from the usa and cuttting them out.
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: Sir Tigger KC on 06 October 2013, 21:50:15
Thinking about it there's a CNG fuelling tank at Aust services on the M48, I've never seen it used though.  :-\
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: biggriffin on 06 October 2013, 21:52:47
For trucks, asda,Tesco,and Eddie are using and trailing cng. Eddies at crick have a new cng plant.
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: Sir Tigger KC on 06 October 2013, 21:59:26
For trucks, asda,Tesco,and Eddie are using and trailing cng. Eddies at crick have a new cng plant.

Yes it's in the truck park, if I remember rightly.  :)
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: Lazydocker on 06 October 2013, 23:01:21
The tanks for CNG are considerably thicker and stronger so need a bigger tank for same range.

Oh, and most of the "LPG Explosions while filling" that people bring out are actually some retard pumping CNG into an LPG tank ;)
Title: Re: Natural gas cars fuelled from your home gas supply!
Post by: Sir Tigger KC on 06 October 2013, 23:52:34
Same nozzle?  :o