Is natural gas fuel the answer?

[oldgold69]

I've keep hearing from all the talking heads on tv. That compressed natural gas is answer to our energy independence. [ if you believe their hoey]  They said this back in the 80's and it never went anywhere.  How effiicent is it and can older cars be made to work in them. If you start using it for auto fuel. What is it going to do to home heating  costs.  So what do you techs have to say. Is it good or bad

[terrible one]

I believe there's a member floating around here who converted their third gen ('71 I think it was) Charger to run on propane. . .

[Charger74]

Yup, but he's in New Zealand where it's easier to get.  I believe if you do a search here you will find more about it.

[bordin34]

I thought he was in Australia and it was government subsidized there.

[GreenMachine]

   We've had a few natural gas vehicles at work and they've proven to be more troublesome than gas or diesel. It's usually minor things like hard to start and inaccurate quantity gauges, I'm sure if natural gas vehicles were more widespread the bugs would be nonexistant.
   I personally don't think natural gas is the answer. Remember that the natural gas companies are the oil companies. When more vehicles are converted (or built), the more of a demand and the higher the price. My house is heated with natural gas, I remember back in the 80's, all the commercials telling you to switch from electric appliances to natural gas because it's "more reliable and cheaper". Then a couple of years later the price went up and the commercials stopped.
   So, if more cars were burning natural gas, eventually the price will go up and then you're paying high fuel costs for your car and your house.   
   

[PocketThunder]

   We've had a few natural gas vehicles at work and they've proven to be more troublesome than gas or diesel. It's usually minor things like hard to start and inaccurate quantity gauges, I'm sure if natural gas vehicles were more widespread the bugs would be nonexistant.
   I personally don't think natural gas is the answer. Remember that the natural gas companies are the oil companies. When more vehicles are converted (or built), the more of a demand and the higher the price. My house is heated with natural gas, I remember back in the 80's, all the commercials telling you to switch from electric appliances to natural gas because it's "more reliable and cheaper". Then a couple of years later the price went up and the commercials stopped.
   So, if more cars were burning natural gas, eventually the price will go up and then you're paying high fuel costs for your car and your house.   
   

  There is no answer to cheaper transportation, unless you live within say 10 miles from work and you can ride bike.  Or think back to the times before the industrial revolution and how people lived without fossil fuels.

[5wndwcpe]

Natural gas would make sense for fleet vehicles as there's less of a demand on the infrastructure (think gas stations).  The gas lines running to your house (for those that have gas) are running to low of a pressure to effectively fill a vehicles storage tank in a reasonable amount of time.  The other problem with using natural gas as a widespread motor fuel is that it is not a "sticky" energy source.  That is NG, along with oil, can be easily exported should the demand overseas increase.  Let's not kid ourselves, short of nationlizing the energy industry, fuel is going to the highest bidder. 

Hydrogen takes a fair amount of electricity to make hydrogen to turn back into electricity.  So that doesn't make much sense.  Personally, I think coal to diesel is the best bet to fuel our heavy trucks.  Geothermal to heat our homes.  Solar and wind as a supplement to power our homes, with the bulk of the work done by nuclear plants.  Electric cars for the daily driver.  Yes, battery technology sucks as of now, but that is because r&d has been lagging.  What company or venture capitilist wants to invest millions if not billions of dollars in a technology that isn't cost effective when the price of crude plummets.

The series hybrids, such as GM's Volt and Chrysler's Envi are good examples of what could be.  The private sector can and will get serious about this, but when and only when, they are sure the bottom won't fall out from under them.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

I work for the New York City Transit as a Maintenance Supv.  My depot currently runs 280 CNG powered buses (Detroit Diesel Series 50 engines)
The cost to run these buses over Low Sulfur Diesel fuel is almost double.  Not so much in the price of the fuel but in the maintenance aspect.  Special oils, more frequent tune ups, higher operating temps etc all contribute to this cost.  The plus to this is the fact that the NYCT gets a federal grant to run these buses under the Clean Air Act so it offsets the cost.
To fuel these buses to full capacity (3600 lbs) we rely on a CNG compressing station.  To compress the 7-10 psi gas coming from the street, we run (4) 1500hp Cat CNG powered compressors to compress the gas to 4,000 psi.   Doing this lets us fill up a bus in approx 7 mins per bus.....we fuel approx 240 buses a night from 6pm till 4am EVERY day....

On the flip side, Honda has for public sale, a Civic GX NGV that with a 3k attachment, you can fuel from your house over night

http://automobiles.honda.com/civic-gx/

[mikesbbody]

I believe there's a member floating around here who converted their third gen ('71 I think it was) Charger to run on propane. . .

your probably talking about pete from australia (71 beeman) and his 71 super bee. he run's it on lpg/gasoline meaning he's not dedicated to one or the other it will run on both. Not sure what the deal is? flick of a switch maybe? at first i thought it was a bad idea but im starting to think differently now. Hopefully pete will see this thread and tell you guys more about it.

[69DodgeCharger]

No it's not the answer we are almost out of natural gas too. Natural gas is mentioned in a link here. Better finish your car and enjoy it while you can.

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

[duo-stripe]

here in Holland..gas prices are skyhigh; high octane fuel ( 95 octane ) is about 10$ a gallon. A lot of people drive liquid petrol gas; your engine runs much warmer, valves and pistonrings wear out much faster; for a big V8 engine..the engine always burns lean. I drive my cars in Holland; if i don't have money for gas..i don't drive. But i will never own a lpg-car.

[Charger74]

I thought he was in Australia and it was government subsidized there.

Yeah Bordin, thanks for the correction.  It is Pete with the 71.