As I understand it frakking to get NG involves pumping toxic chemical into the ground - no good.
NG burns cleaner - good
If the trucking industry, which constitutes 4% of vehicles on the road but consumes 30% of fuel used, converted, it would eliminate need for imported oil from the Middle East.*
Would subsidizing these trucks which are 2x the cost of a 100k diesel truck be a good idea? This would require retrofitting 1000’s of truck stops to supply LNG.
disclaimer, this was heard in a news article and has not been fact-checked.
Gas is increasingly being used as a replacement for coal for electricity generation rather than heavy trucking.
That’s where I think it belongs. And the big supply in the North East means natural gas heating instead of oil heating for all those New Englanders. That’s good too.
I don’t think you should build billions (trillions?) in infrastructure that’s going to last for decades for natural gas transportation. It just seems like a waste of money. I’d rather build gas to liquids plants or support biofuels, fuels that are fungible with petroleum and don’t require building new infrastructure. If NG was something that you could depend on forever, that’s different. But ultimately I think it’s just a few decade stopgap (at best) on the way to better things.
Well all I know is that we switched from a forced air electric furnace to natural gas last year and my winter heating bills are way, way lower than they were.
Gas is increasingly being used as a replacement for coal for electricity generation rather than heavy trucking.
That’s where I think it belongs. And the big supply in the North East means natural gas heating instead of oil heating for all those New Englanders. That’s good too.
I don’t think you should build billions (trillions?) in infrastructure that’s going to last for decades for natural gas transportation. It just seems like a waste of money. I’d rather build gas to liquids plants or support biofuels, fuels that are fungible with petroleum and don’t require building new infrastructure. If NG was something that you could depend on forever, that’s different. But ultimately I think it’s just a few decade stopgap (at best) on the way to better things.
In terms of energy density, “green” < NG < oil… if it is a stopgap to green it may be more that 20 years. It will be more expensive to purchase those trucks but cheaper to run them. Owner-operators (UPS is one of them) will have to do the math themselves. The number I read is 4500 truck stops to be retrofitted. No idea of the cost but that along with private NG depots doesn’t seem too bad.
We’ve found a huge amount of natural gas recently and the prices have plunged to what they were in the 1950’s. It’s killing the coal industry in America. Is this a good thing? It is a cleaner fuel than coal, but it also could give the gas industry more power than we are comfortable with. Does anyone trust the gas industry? However, people don’t want coal power plants and they don’t want nuclear plants. Wind, hydro, and solar can only produce limited amounts of electricity. Natural gas might be that happy medium fuel that can power peaking units and not produce a lot of pollution.
I will admit to being a little concerned about fracking. Seems shortsighted of us to possibly damage our drinking water aquifers in the name of cheap energy. While need energy, we gotta have decent water to drink.
We’ve got plenty of water. It just not stored or delivered as efficiently as it could be. Hey, we could use natural gas powered desalinization plants to replace the water contaminated by fracking.
I don’t know what constitutes heavy but looking around I found this.
Peterbilt’s Model 367 LNG offers up to 475 horsepower and 1,750 ft-lbs of torque.
So at least someone has started.
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Trucks used in the Port of Los Angeles are almost all LNG. Peterbilt and Navistar offer LNG trucks and/or LNG conversions. Navistar was looking at multi-fuel trucks as well (85% LNG/15% diesel). Advantages are for LNG are much less complicated diesel based engines and catalyst only exhaust (no particulate traps and no SCR/DEF). There should be more uptime and cheaper repairs since emissions systems make up a majority of cost and downtime in the trucking industry. Downsides are energy density is 65% of diesel, much higher fuel usage, and slightly different maintenance schedules (and spark plugs!). Port trucks still pull 80k lbs. Big bore engines and anything over 1300lb-ft is fine for line haul trucks.
Plan to see a lot more over-the-road rigs using it in the next few years, especially if fleets adapt it. T. Boone Pickens is adding LNG pumps at 150 truck stops across the country in the next couple years as well.
Waste Management has not purchased a diesel garbage truck in NJ in 2 years. They have converted or bought new CNG trucks in South Jersey and as trucks come off line they are being replaced with CNG ones. It does not cost anywhere near double for the CNG trucks.
They can buy a gallon of CNG for .85 vs a gallon of diesel for 3.55. You do the math. Even if it’s costs them a million for each yard to convert their main truck yards they will still be way ahead in a few short years. It’s perfect for them because the trucks come back to the same yard every night. Over the road guys don’t have the infrastructure set up yet. But they will if the oil companies want it. And right now they don’t. They are the same companies that refine oil by the way. Until the oil is gone I don’t expect any big shift towards CNG. There’s too much money still to be made with oil.
I tried to buy a CNG pick up truck here in NJ last year. Most of the dealers I called didn’t know what I was talking about.? How is that possible?
I could install a compressor in my garage and fill my own tank overnight for about 1.25 a gallon. Same gas we use in the stove. But the oil
companies don’t want it so there is a huge “tax” for converting a gas engine to CNG. It costs about between 15-$20,000.00 for a new truck conversion. I did read that GM is making a CNG pick up due out at the end of 2012. I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ll be the first one on my block with one if they make it.
We’ve got plenty of water. It just not stored or delivered as efficiently as it could be. Hey, we could use natural gas powered desalinization plants to replace the water contaminated by fracking.
It has been a crazy few years in the gas industry. For the first time in a generation the price of gas has been decoupled from the price of oil. And it looks like, due to fracking, the price of gas will remain very low for at least the next 2-5 years. Great for most people but it is creating a boom-bust type thing for people who are leasing land, drilling and distributing.
I’ve got full confidence that fracking “can” be done safely. However, stringent safeguards and clear liability lines must be in place in the event of an accident. There are a lot of good companies out there, but many other wildcatters who, if something goes wrong, can just declare bankruptcy and disappear, leaving the residents and the state to pay for remediation.
I’m not big on converting millions of vehicles to natural gas. Rather, it makes more sense to use the gas for industrial processes, residential usage, and electricity generation. For some industries, it could be a good way to lower costs and emissions. For electric generation, you can design an intelligent energy production system to use renewables with natural gas peaking facilities as the backup. But that requires some smarts.
A year or so ago I heard a hand-wringer talking about how fracking would increase earthquakes and I scoffed at her. Now, after the quakes in Ohio, located pretty much where the fracking was happening, I’m not so sure I should have been so dismissive.