Detroit diesel to natural gas conversion

[Regal2800]

it is probably 10 years out now but i think natural gas will make it's way over to boats sooner then everyone thinks. compare natural gas to petroleum by energy output. The simplest and easiest method to compute the energy output is BTU. Natural gas is much much cheaper per BTU and the green house gas is substantially less. It also will drastically reduce our dependence on foreign countries which is a huge plus. The marine industry will be forced to adapt. There are many factors at play which slowly force things to change. Cost of NG vs petroleum, EPA standards, etc.

Gas stations will quickly adopt as well. There just has to be a way to convert current diesel engines to run on NG.

[Dan Mapes]

Not worried about it. Besides, doesn't the diesel oil cool the head as well as feed the injectors?

[krush]

One backyard way to run CNG is to just inject it in the intake. You will still need to use diesel fuel to initiate combustion, but you can may be able to reduce this to a 20% diesel 80% CNG ratio.

Pure NG engines require spark ignition. Many of the big OEM's make gas (nat gas, LPG, etc) engine variants of diesel engines, but they have spark plugs.

Google and youtube have lots of guys that have experimented with this stuff. Companies have developed this stuff...check out this PDF of a Nat gas diesel conversion: http://www.gfs-corp.net/pdf/GTI%20201-07.pdf

[Canuck Dennis]

I believe they tried this in Vancouver in a smaller ferry, compressed NG, storage was a serious problem as range and HP could not really be satisfied with the space available, seemed to die a natural death, seems I recall a concern about safety due to the very high pressures in the storage tanks and rupture could be catastrophic.

[Regal2800]

I have seen many buses run on CNG. Wouldn't they have the same problems with regards to tank fuel storage and power output? Maybe those engines are specifically designed from the get go to run on CNG?

[Boatsb]

Newer engine designs are made to run cng. As for fueling they go between their fueling stations not out to public schools service stations.

[Genesis]

You could convert to run on it (assuming you can figure out how you're going to inject the fuel; the existing injectors aren't going to work so good ;-)) but before you seriously consider it I suggest you take a look at the pressures involved in a CNG storage tank (hint: They're high), the hydro requirement (and the fun that might ensue getting the tankage out and in to meet that), leak, fuel line, regulator and valving considerations, the mass of said tank(s) (not a huge problem in a big boat, but a consideration) and the real killer, which is the amount physical space required (including the tank itself) to store an equivalent number of BTUs of energy as you have in your diesel tankage now.

Oh, and the availability of a place with the requisite high-pressure system to refill the tanks. That could be a problem too.