Well gas question

[stratodart]

My father in law has a gas well on his property and would like to use it as a fuel source for his pov.He contacted Fuelmaker regarding refueling equipment and at their request sent them a gas sample from the well for analysis. According to Fuelmaker the gas analyzed is not suitable with their equipment due to high nitrogen, propane and ethane levels.

Sample numbers:
Methane 81.47
Ethane 7.20
Propane 3.33
Nitrogen 6.62

Anyone have a similar experience? Any ideas?

Thank you
Bill

[CH-4]

Re: Well gas question

Build one of these:
http://www.naturalgas.org/naturalgas/processing_ng.asp
Or maybe you can just burn it in a boiler/generator to produce electricity and install some big batteries in the tractor.

[freedml]

Re: Well gas question

Personally, at 0 cost for the gas, I would buy a used FM unit, run it and see what happens. Sure, it might fail prematurely, but it might not. The C5 might gather in your tank in liquid phase and require more frequent filter changes. Nitrogen won't cause a problem, nor will the C2 I don't think. I'm the adventurous type, so I'd give it a try.

[stratodart]

Re: Well gas question

Build one of these:
http://www.naturalgas.org/naturalgas/processing_ng.asp
Or maybe you can just burn it in a boiler/generator to produce electricity and install some big batteries in the tractor.

Are their any companies that produce small scale processing equipment? Would nitrogen removal be sufficient for vehicle use?

[cowboy]

Re: Well gas question

nitrogen is will not hurt anything as a fuel as it is inert it will cost alittle power as it will displace air and fuel gas I dont know about running a fuel maker you will have to find this out from some one other than me as I have never bought one and have always used real compressers and have used all kinds of well gas I have found that if I dont let the pressure get below 500 in the tank over a time the propane and butane sit in the bottom of the tanks and than when I take a trip I can go much farther this part I am guessing at some times I can go as much as 35% after I get down to 200 lbs witch is less than 10% of my pressure so I would not let the gas fear me you will need a drip to catch the water and posabley a dissacant dryer and drains on all stages of your compresser

[cngacrossusa]

Re: Well gas question

Hey Stratodart in Washington,

There was a similar topic regarding dryers for individual's own gas wells to use a Fuelmaker and produce "free" cng. See at:
http://cngchat.com/forum/showthread....homemade+dryer

As part of that thread, there was guy in your situation that created a great website documenting the steps taken to get his free well gas ready for use. I think he convinced the gas company to add some "clean up" equipment for the quality of his gas in Pennsylvania. See at:
http://littlemetalshop.com/alt-fuel/alt-fuel.html

I'd sure start with a guy like this who has been through the process already.

Good luck . . . . and Go CNG !!

[Gerben]

Re: Well gas question

I think starting with a used FuelMaker is a wise precaution. Nitrogen is not a problem. We have 14% in our natural gas in the Netherlands and cars and FuelMakers work just fine on it. The problem are possible condensables. I would do the following:
1. coal absorption+gas filter
2. use a gas cooler as dryer
Get/build a gas cooler as dryer which cools the gas before compression and allows condensables to condensate at low pressure so they can be removed. I can get you a small cooler dryer that cools to just above freezing point but this won't be enough. You should get one/build one that cools far below the minimum ambient pressure at low pressure. (Or add a 2nd dryer to below ambient temperature after compression.)

If you can't get a better dryer than I can offer, I recommend buying a 3,000 psi FuelMaker and adding an absorption dryer after the compression. But even then you have a risk of condensables.