More natural gas vehicles in the future?

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by GJKH

I'd buy a used one, but hard to find fueling stations where I live. I'm guessing this is one of the issues holding back NG vehicles.

Even where CNG stations exist it's not always that much cheaper than gasoline. It is right now, but that's because gasoline has shot up from the pandemic. CNG is $2.25 here in town and gasoline is $3.84 right now. But I paid closer to $2.25 for gasoline about a year ago.

Where CNG is much cheaper is if you can compress it at home. But NG compressors are way too expensive and hard to find.

The other thing is that the CNG tank on the car is supposed to be replaced every so often and it too is very expensive.

Another reason people don't buy CNG cars is their limited range and the fact the tank usually takes up half the trunk.

[redpoint5]

Would love it if I could fill up at home by compressing the gas already fed to me. I wonder what the cost per mile would look like compared to gasoline?

[Isaac Zachary]

IIRC, home NG costs somewhere around $1 power gasoline gallon equivalent. I'm not sure if that includes cost to compress though.

But if you need a new $5,000 tank every 8 years...

[oil pan 4]

In 2020 the United States generated 40% of our power from natural gas.
So if you have an electric car you can say its natural gas powered.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

IIRC, home NG costs somewhere around $1 power gasoline gallon equivalent. I'm not sure if that includes cost to compress though.

But if you need a new $5,000 tank every 8 years...

I'd probably double that service interval, or buy a more expensive tank that doesn't require replacement.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I'd probably double that service interval, or buy a more expensive tank that doesn't require replacement.

I'm not sure that never-replace tanks exist. It's a DOT requirement. The idea is that as the tank fills and empties over time it weakens the tank from the huge amount of pressure involved.

I'd bet you could easily get twice that out of one though. Just don't let the DOT know.

[rmay635703]

Tank wear is related to the number of rapid fill events or if it’s steel coorsion

Monitor how much fuel you use and get the actual fill qty limit (3x per day in most cases) and yeah tank life could be very long as long as you inspect every year, fittings, regulators and hose tend to be ass needing occasional tending to

[Piotrsko]

Didn't inspect the tank safety marks, but know the company's maintenance system: there's a paratransit company I used to work for that runs CNG high pressure. I saw a van I used to drive 15 years ago. So either they should have pressure tested the tank (requirement) or they replaced it (requirement if it failed). Doesnt look different from when I pretripped it 15 years ago, and the company was soo cheap that if they didn't have to replace it they wouldn't. The mechanics were lazy as all get out, the installation doesnt look touched. They probably haven't even pressure tested it.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

IIRC the hydrostatic test for CNG cylinders in my country is done in an interval that varies for commercial vehicles (mostly taxis) and private ones. Now with so many Uber drivers resorting to CNG on their private vehicles, I guess it may become somewhat confusing...

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

IIRC the hydrostatic test for CNG cylinders in my country is done in an interval that varies for commercial vehicles (mostly taxis) and private ones. Now with so many Uber drivers resorting to CNG on their private vehicles, I guess it may become somewhat confusing...

Last time I checked the “equipment/ conversion” costs for CNG were well under 1/4 the cost here and you get the same brands and components we do.

If the US would adopt a more Brazilian approach we might have more CNG vehicles buzzing around