On Wednesday, June 15, 2005, at 01:59 PM, Tom Shannon wrote:
> http://www.usatoday.com/money/2005-06-14-hydro-cycle-usat_x.htm
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> On Any Sunday...Not!
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> Tom Shannon
> Magna, Utah
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In late 1994 I bought a (used) GMC "Jimmy" out of the fleet of the
local natural gas utility, and still have it (at the house -- use it
for my snowplow truck). SBC/automatic powertrain, and equipped with a
commercial dual-fuel kit - gasoline or Compressed Natural Gas. Great
idea, very low emissions, ran fine on CNG once the engine had about 3-5
minutes of warm-up time (wouldn't start on CNG except above 80 degrees
or so). Two 10-L pressure tanks in the back, which, when filled to
nominal 3,200 psi, would give me 80-90 miles range. The truck has a
manual fuel switch -- no automatic device to select which fuel.
I'd fill it at one of two locations -- the compressor at the gas
utility, or the compressor at one local truck stop. Price was about 85
cents/ gallon "equivalent" vs. gasoline, at that time about
$1.35/gallon. I could have purchased a compressor for here at the
office, but the cost of acquisition added to required maintenance made
it uneconomical -- I would NEVER have got my money out of it, even
considering my cost would have been about 45 cents/gal. equiv. from my
own pipe.
CNG was a great fuel -- maybe 5% less HP than gasoline, but no big
deal. Much lower cost because there were no road taxes assessed at the
commercial pump. The spark plugs with 100,000 miles on 'em looked
absolutely brand new. I'd show 'em off, they were so clean. Oil came
out clean at oil changes, too.
So why'd I quit using CNG? Because I can't get CNG any more. The gas
company quit, the truck stop got rid of their compressor...because
there wasn't a customer base. There was, however, natural gas
infrastructure to get the gas TO the stations. And this brings me to
my question about compressed H2 -- will the public support it enough to
convince the vendors that they should install, operate, and maintain
the supply lines, the compressors, the special pumps, the high initial
purchase price of the H2 vehicle?
Bitten once, shy twice.
Jon Wennerberg
Seldom Seen Slim Land Speed Racing
Marquette, Michigan
(that's 'way up north)
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