I wonder if there will be a natural gas version of the Volt.

I wonder if there will be a natural gas version of the Volt.
Looks like T. Boone Pickens has a lot of people thinking about this. Walmart head honcho has asked his bean-counters to "do-the-math" about switching their fleet of diesel trucks to compressed natural gas.

The way I look at it is MILES PER DOLLAR. Would it be cheaper to run a VOLT on CNG than gasoline? Might be, plus with CNG, oil stays cleaner, the engine has better lubricity (thus less internal engine wear) and we have a BUNCH on natural gas left in the ground here in the USA.

I like that idea... good thinking, good post.

Looks like T. Boone Pickens has a lot of people thinking about this...

Would it be cheaper to run a VOLT on CNG than gasoline?

I like that idea... good thinking, good post.
AS CNG usage increases, and gasoline prices come back down to Earth (so to speak) will this be so attractive? We have seen what happened to diesel/bio-diesel and ethanol pricing. It would be interesting to see the math with the "what if" alternatives.

Pardon me for what might sound like a wise crack.. If there was a "CNG Volt".. wouldn't we want to change the name? ("Flame" just doesn't have much market-appeal!)

CNG and H2 are safer than gas. They are stored under such great pressure that the tanks would drain in under a second and the gas harmless float away.

10 gallons of gas pooling under a car is much more scarier. If the volt comes with a spare tire well you could convert it to run on LPG or CNG for a cost of around 2 grand and have a quint Fuel Car.

E85
Electricity
Gas
LPG
CNG

true if you where to switch from LPG or CNG you woudl need to remap the injectors

They just have to make sure that in a serious accident that if the tank does burst it doesn't act like a projectile or bomb. Not from the CNG or H2 burning, but because of the rapid expansion of gas. If you have ever seen a small pressure vessel rupture you'd realize what a potential danger it could be to anyone within several hundred feet.

They just have to make sure that in a serious accident that if the tank does burst it doesn't act like a projectile or bomb. Not from the CNG or H2 burning, but because of the rapid expansion of gas. If you have ever seen a small pressure vessel rupture you'd realize what a potential danger it could be to anyone within several hundred feet.





wtiger, CNG is already used all over the world. Can you provide statistics that show it's more dangerous than gas? The fact is, all fuels are dangerous. So is huge amounts of electrical energy. It's our responsibility to make these energy systems as safe as possible. It takes a long time to get energy systems debugged and worked out so that they are safe enough for people. If something happens that scares the public (Hindenburg) that event can ruin the reputation of a fuel or system beyond repair.

This is why I worry about the early days of lithium-ion battery packs in cars. There is probably going to be some bad accidents early on. Even though many people die every year in gasoline fires people are use to this risk and accept it. What if a person of bad intent tries to sabotage the EV movement? Will it get a bad reputation that people can't get over? This is a scary and exciting time. Hopefully people will give new energy systems a break and allow the initial problems be worked out and refined, almost like they accept the high failure rate of space systems. Most people understand that with new technology comes risks. The also understand that those risks are worth it in the end. If not, fire would have been banned millions of years ago.

With that in mind, please research the safety of CNG and hydrogen more carefully. It really is that important, unless you think the risks of staying with oil are that much better. I certainly don't. I feel that staying with oil is the biggest risk of all (the potential for oil resource wars).

High pressure tanks for CNG and LPG and H2 are made of polypropylene core wrapped in carbon fiber. Just like what firemen use these days for carry air.

When they fail they dont blow up a crack just appears. the polypropylene is very flexible and the fibers of carbon catch anythign that could shear off. They mix a small ratio of plasticizers into the resin

cool. That's good enough for me.

High pressure tanks for CNG and LPG and H2 are made of polypropylene core wrapped in carbon fiber. Just like what firemen use these days for carry air.

When they fail they dont blow up a crack just appears. the polypropylene is very flexible and the fibers of carbon catch anythign that could shear off. They mix a small ratio of plasticizers into the resinBut WHERE are you going to put them?? I don't want to be riding on-top of a CNG tank thank you very much!
Box of a pickup? FINE! Interior of a passengr car? NO WAY! Sure you coul give up all your trunk space I guess but ...
JMO
WopOnTour

But WHERE are you going to put them?? I don't want to be riding on-top of a CNG tank thank you very much!
Box of a pickup? FINE! Interior of a passengr car? NO WAY! Sure you coul give up all your trunk space I guess but ...
JMO
WopOnTour


If the car is designed for it they can find room for a good sized tank. What, you don't like this Honda CNG? It's already on sale.

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0fYx0da0Cj1Yf/340x.jpg

Propane is liquid at much lower pressurs then CNG or H2.

They have tanks on the market right now for propane that are shaped like donuts that fit right in the sparetire well. they hold around 8 gallons if i remember correctly.

Remember with LPG if you got a 8 gallon tank it can only hold 6 gallons of LPG thats just he nature of it since there has to be a buffer of sorts

[QUOTE=zeksteve;12960]CNG and H2 are safer than gas. They are stored under such great pressure that the tanks would drain in under a second and the gas harmless float away.

I used to work in PR for a large company dealing in exploration and natural gas transmission... The El Paso Company... They launched a big LNG project in the 70s and man did the "reactive Chicken-Littles" come out of the woordwork.

Get on YouTube and look at all the Hollywood freaks opposing natural gas and especially LNG. In fact, look up "EL PASO SHIP, THE PAUL KAYSER" (one of my videos) and you'll see a maiden voyage of an LNG ship going into Elba Island, Georgia. Sadly, I think we are no longer getting LNG from any source these days.

If the car is designed for it they can find room for a good sized tank. What, you don't like this Honda CNG? It's already on sale.

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0fYx0da0Cj1Yf/340x.jpgCorrect me if I'm wrong, but wasnt that Honda using trunk mounted tanks? That was what I was getting at. It's difficult to mount tanks in a spot where they won't become a serious hazard in a front/rear end collision. The only other option is to mount them UNDER the car or IN the passenger compartment which is also to the detriment of passenger safety.

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of CNG - in fact I have worked with it extensively. FYI, General Motors has been manufacturing and selling BI-FUEL CNG pickups, full-size vans (and even the old Cavalier) since the middle 90's but terminated the program in 2007 due to dwindling interest in CNG fleets.

WOT