A modern Gas Bag car

[Staska]

Originally Posted by euromodder

Storing CNG at near-atmospheric pressures in easily damaged tubes is ridiculous - and dangerous.

As for the first pic, that bag on the roof instantly doubles the aerodynamic drag.

It is safer because - it has no pressure to explode, and it is outside of car.

First pic is not a modern solution. Modern is shown in a post above.

A safety test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luAtON_hG_w

And my enspiration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrhlRIvNjTc

[gone-ot]

...the Hindenbergette?

[sheepdog 44]

Compressed natural gas is much safer than atmospheric pressure gas. For one your placing it inside the cabin. You will not be able to hear or notice any leaking gas allowing it to mix with air and ignite. Once that happens that cubic meter of gas in your hatch will ignite all the interior trim and seats.

A CNG tank like on the cng-civic can withstand bullets let alone head on car crashes. And will give you hundreds of miles of range.

You can do it if you want to. Just wait till a cop pulls you over and it gets impounded.

[Sven7]

This seems like a lot of work for, honestly, about 2 mpg. I mean you have to get the methane from somewhere too, which means you may have to sequester it. This would not be a problem if you had a commercial kitchen (Scientific American covered this as a 3rd world energy source a few months ago) but I don't think you're going to produce a cubic meter of uncomp methane gas each day for your morning commute...

...unless you eat a lot of Mexican food.

[bignasty]

I think if you could store it in safe container and had a good supply of it itd be worth trying. I mean why not? Isnt that the whole point of this forum to squeeze every last drop of fuel out of our cars and improve them as cheap as possible.

[redneck]

My thoughts on this would be to put the bag in a small lightweight trailer with a hard shell that could be shaped for aerodynamics.

Since your not carrying the fuel in the vehicle and with proper venting, the chance of a explosion is nearly eliminated and would be much safer if there were a accident.


Parking would be the only problem.


>

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by redneck

My thoughts on this would be to put the bag in a small lightweight trailer with a hard shell that could be shaped for aerodynamics.

At near-atmospheric pressure, the trailer would hold so little gas that it'd be pointless to tow the trailer around.

I'd be very surprised if DoT even allowed carrying natural gas in non-approved containers.

[JasonG]

Originally Posted by Staska

You can't do it at back-yard.

Wrong.
I know several guys with NG vans that fill from home.
House pressure is too low so they use compressors.
Not expensive either.

This also goes to the DOT regulations. It is illegal and very dangerous to connect to a vehicle any flamable substance in a non-DOT approved container.
This is why motorhomes must use DOT tanks, not the standard RV tanks. Same goes for NG/LPG carbed vehicles.

As noted above, atmospheric gas is more flamable. When taking hazmat training we learned the explosive potential of an empty tank vs a full one. Very cool videos, but I wouldn't want to be sitting near it !

As a logical note, you could fit quite a few cubes of NG/methane in the trunk of most cars. About like adding a larger batt pack.

[Staska]

Originally Posted by JasonG

As noted above, atmospheric gas is more flamable. When taking hazmat training we learned the explosive potential of an empty tank vs a full one. Very cool videos, but I wouldn't want to be sitting near it !

As a logical note, you could fit quite a few cubes of NG/methane in the trunk of most cars. About like adding a larger batt pack.

Thanks for ideas.

Video of can explosion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbggOyesUoA

It does explode - because in a can we got a mixture of air and gas. Same would be if we fill trunk with gas in a car.

But same trunk fitted with flexible bag filled with gas is safe. Because it does not mix with air. We take gas from bag, bag collapse. Unless we make two holes and supply air to the bag.

Trailer behind car is good idea, but we could get same result with bigger boat tail as stadet in first topic post. It is outside of car too, and it is mean to be aerodynamic. But it is small.

[racerc2000]

why not have the bag float above the car. like a helium balloon then you wouldnt be carrying the weight. or would you.