As technology in the oil patch has improved, oil wells that once were “marginal” or in “tertiarary recovery” have again caught the eye of drillers, making petroleum leases hot commodities from Pennsylvania to the Rockies and south to the Gulf.

One of the side benefits to the rediscovery of America’s own abundant petroleum resources has been phenomenal amounts of natural gas available – gas reserves we could only imagine 20 years ago.

There are signs natural gas is quietly being phased in as a motor fuel, with several over-the-road truck builders introducing rigs powered with compressed natural gas (CNG), evidence someone has been listening to investor T. Boone Pickens, who wants to convert the majority of OTR freight hauling to CNG.

Such a move makes sense, since natural gas is a domestically-produced energy source, burns cleaner than even low-sulfur diesel fuel, and right now sells for about 2/3rds the price of diesel fuel. That differential could change, however, as transportation ups demand at the same time more power plants come on line burning natural gas. (Power production with natural gas-fired turbines will increase as such plants are built to step in to keep the grid active as more wind energy comes on line – energy that is intermittent depending upon wind conditions.)

We recently got acquainted with Brian Carpenter, a principal in CE Clean Energy Solutions, in Sturgis, So. Dak., a firm that is preparing for the boom in natural gas demand. CE supplies kits to supplement stationary diesel engines with natural gas to lower overall fuel costs. He says CE is also looking at kits for conversions of diesel powered vehicles to use CNG. In those applications the CNG would be switched on after the vehicle warms to operating temperature and actual diesel fuel consumption would fall drastically as the natural gas in the intake air stream took over the “heavy lifting,” leaving the diesel fuel consumption to mainly provide for efficient ignition. Such technology very well may be available in 2012, he says.

CNG conversions to spark-ignited vehicles have been around for years, but as emission standards continue to become more strict, and the infrastructure for fueling CNG vehicles becomes more available, you will likely see more natural gas being burned in gasoline and diesel engines on the farm.

Stay tuned, it’s an exciting time. 

This article was first published

by the
Dakota Farmer
on Friday, October 14, 2011

Article source: http://www.cngnow.com/News/Post.aspx?ID=501