VW Passat CNG Turbo

[CNG Utah]

Just thought this was interesting. It would be nice if VW would bring them over here.

ESSEN -- Volkswagen aims boosts its share in the highly competitive fleet market by offering the world's first turbocharged engines that can run on both gasoline and compressed natural gas.

Cars with this technology are expected to offer fuel costs up to 50 percent lower than cars with a gasoline or diesel engine. The cost of CNG is less than .90 euro a liter while and price for gasoline is about 1.35 euro a liter.

Reiner Mangold, the managing director of Volkswagen Individual, told Automotive News Europe sister publication Automobilwoche that a Passat with a 1.4-liter TSI gasoline engine that can also run on compressed natural gas will arrive in early 2008.

The Passat is the most popular fleet car in Germany, according to Frankfurt-based market researcher Dataforce.

The small, turbocharged engine should provide at least 150hp.

The Touran medium minivan, Caddy car-derived van and Golf lower-medium model are scheduled the get the new engine technology after the Passat.

Opel and Fiat also are working on models with the technology.

You may e-mail Felix E. Bauer at [email protected]

[c2sox]

Re: VW Passat CNG Turbo

Frankly I think every car manufacturer should consider delveloping more bi-fuel vehicles. Seems it's more common to see them in Europe. I would love to get my hands on a Volvo V70 (wagon) Bi-fuel, unfortunately Volvo has pulled the plug on the car due to slow sales. I've contacted them about it and their reply was basically that they have no plans to import them here!

I wonder if you could legally import them here as gray market cars? I've seen quite few used ones in the UK.

[jetboatjohnny]

Re: VW Passat CNG Turbo

A better option would be to modify the TDI engine to run on natural gas.
My folks drove one in Europe (Diesel) and didn't even know it was a diesel until they went to get fuel and the gas nozzle would not fit!

[luedtkec]

Re: VW Passat CNG Turbo

You need a spark to run CNG numbnuts. Last i checked a TDI was a diesel engine with no spark plug. The diesel cycle works by detonation because the high compressions raises the temperature of the fuel mixture past it's combustion temperature. CNG will detonate when specific heat reaches around 600 degrees F. This temperature will not be achieved in a diesel cycle engine. The new TDI's are very quiet though. The direct injection helps keep it very quiet. Almost as quiet as a petroleum fuel burning car.

[jetboatjohnny]

Re: VW Passat CNG Turbo

That's why you modify the engine, just like all the garbage trucks pinhead.

[luedtkec]

Re: VW Passat CNG Turbo

Is that conversion possible on that little 1.9 TDI Diesel engine? A garbage truck diesel is surely a different animal than the VW direct injection diesel. I am a big VW guy myself and would be very interested in this topic. Not shooting down the idea at all, it would be sweet to make this happen. Think about it...bi-fuel car...biodiesel/CNG!!! Not sure if it gets any cooler than that...

[jetboatjohnny]

Re: VW Passat CNG Turbo

Screw the Bi-fuel, nobody wants a stinky car. Re-design the heads with spark plugs, add a hybrid setup and you could easily see a car that could get over 60mpg.

[luedtkec]

Re: VW Passat CNG Turbo

seriously? no bi-fuel? I loathe the smell of McDonalds french fries from my exhaust pipe...it is true america!

[jetboatjohnny]

Re: VW Passat CNG Turbo

I guess if you run it on biodiesel, that would be OK. I am not sure a bi-fuel diesel is easily done. The Chevy Colorado (europe) runs on both diesel and methane together, not one or the other.
I saw a great episode on trucks where they made biodiesel from left-over grease from fast food. It looked easy enough, cost around 40cents/gallon with free oil, but what do you do with the glyceryn? Start a soap factory?

[siai47]

Re: VW Passat CNG Turbo

Diesel engines run a compression ignition cycle and natural gas won't ignite by compression alone (as pointed out). However, many diesel engines do run on a combination of natural gas and diesel fuel. I personally owned a couple of large Fairbanks-Morse generator sets that run on that combination of fuels. The reason you want the diesel cycle is because it's extremely high compression ratio required to ignite the fuel increases the efficiency of the cycle. In the Fairbanks engine, the engine starts on 100% diesel and then when load and temps permit, gas is admitted to the cylinder and the diesel fuel injection system goes into pilot fuel mode. In this condition, a gas and air mixture is compressed and ignited by a very small amount of diesel fuel injected by a pilot pump. In this mode, 90% of the fuel is gasous and 10% is diesel. Many, many engines have been built on this type of design for over 50 years, but they have all been large, stationary engines. Recently, Cummins engine company and Westport technologies have teamed up to offer diesel/cng operation in small truck sized engines (including the ever popular 5.9). One style offers the pilot fuel approach as outlined above. The other style runs on a diesel cycle but requires no pilot fuel. The injector fits into the standard Cummins diesel and has a glow plug in the tip which allows the ignition of the natural gas. This technology could be applied to any diesel engine including the current rotary pump of PD style VW engines, or to their soon to be released common rail engines if someone was willing to engineer it. This is the best of all worlds for a clean efficient engine. Check it out at the Westport technologies website.