LNG Powered Locomotives

[geronimotwo]

I see.

How feasible is it to use, say, for a single house in conjunction with solar?

between the two, and reasonable battery storage (usually only 2-4 deep cycle batteries), cruising boaters are able to meet most of their needs with a large panel and small wg.   wind and solar go hand in hand, as typically the wind increases at night and during cloudy weather. for camp lighting and refrigeration, a system could be purchased for under 3k (no tower).   if you want to add an electric clothes dryer and hot water heater the cost for collection and storage just went way up.   once the batteries are charged, some boaters use a water heater as a shunt (for the excess power) and get a few hot showers as well.

[Hawkmoon]

... but these types of graphs are always misleading when they have multiple Y-axis values.  The blue wave should be a tenth of the size of the green wave, or it should have pirates riding on it or something.

QFT.

"Graphs" are (or were, originally) intended to offer a visual representation that makes a quick and clear demonstration of a data set. The real purpose of graphs has long since been co-opted by both the gummint and the media. This graph is one example, where two lines are superimposed but the Y axis of one is exaggerated by a factor of ten relative to the other. Meaning that the visual representation of the line (which IS the graph) does not present a true snapshot of the data.

A couple of days ago the news sites were showing a "graph" purporting to show the DOW Jones average spiking to new highs. The line was almost vertical, and it looked VERY impressive. Except that the lowest value on the Y axis was not zero, it was 14,000, and the peak was 14,500. If the graph actually went to zero, it wouldn't have been nearly as impressive.

I can't find that one, but here's an example, showing all of 2012 up to present. Looks pretty impressive, until you realize it starts at 12,000. Recast that same line on a graph with a Y axis that starts at zero and it won't look nearly as impressive.

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=^DJI+Interactive#symbol=^dji;range=1y;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined;

[never_retreat]

LNG for over-the-road diesel trucks?

Dunno if the NHTSA would sign off on that, with the potential of trucks going all explodey and stuff. 

They already use CNG for city buses. Whats a city bus 40,000 pounds versus a load tractor trailer 80,000 pounds.
So more HP would be required for the truck. CNG is essentially burned in a standard internal combustion engine with spark plugs. I don't know of many gas engines that can make 500 hp and 1200 Ft lbs of torque that an over the road trucker would want.
While you can squeeze that kind of power out of a race engine it won't last long.

So for a train which is essentially a big electric generator with a bunch of big electric motors to drive the wheels I'm assuming you would have to use some sort of turbine to generate the electricity. The average train has 4-6,000 HP. I think a turbine would be the only way to get that much power. Without doing multiple internal combustion engines in each train. Thats a cost and maintenance issue.

[Gewehr98]

Warning - Railroad buff and model railroader here.  No turbines.  Many railroads and locomotive manufacturers tried that, and all failed. 

See this article about the converted Burlington Northern locomotives - http://www.energyconversions.com/loco2.htm

They're running liquified natural gas, with standard diesel fuel injection for ignition - a dual-fuel engine. 

A converted EMD (GM) locomotive diesel engine gets the LNG injected at the beginning of the compression stroke, with a shot of diesel fuel injected at or near top dead center to initiate the combustion of the LNG/air mix.

It's still a diesel engine, and still runs the generators that power the traction motors in all 6 locomotive axles.  The conversion is supposedly transparent to the engineer, save for a light on his console.

With an LNG tender between two converted locomotives, they can approach 900 miles between refuelings.   Nice, but what really floored me was the savings in energy cost.

From this article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324539404578342540494619344.html

A gallon of diesel fuel cost an average of $3.97 last year, according to federal statistics. The equivalent amount of energy in natural gas cost 48 cents at industrial prices.

If true, that's pretty darned cool! 

[never_retreat]

Ah so they are not truly running it on natural gas. Just mixing it with diesel.
Kind of like the guys that are putting propane injection on diesel pickup trucks to make HP.

[DustinD]

The best way for a house to store excess power is on the grid. 100% efficient, cheap, enviro friendly, it lets others use your green energy, less wear and tear on batteries from the far less common discharge cycles, you can get by without, or with a smaller emergency only battery array.

If you either install it yourself or get tax credits and the like it can make financial sense, especially if you can do both.

www.otherpower.com has tons of good information on do it yourself windmill builds, and setting up various other alternate power systems.