Free Gas

[kipunruh]

I live in the country and have my own gas well. It comes out of the ground at apprx. 50psi. My family has 3 cars and total about 70,000 miles per year. I want to convert over to cng but am just starting out. Can anyone save me the "big learning curve"?

[CNG MOTORS]

Re: Free Gas

Buy any CNG vehicles you want except a Contour, get a FMQ2 (not a PHILL) VRA, you'll need a dryer and filter for the well and a regulator to bring down the preassure. And a 220 single phase power source.

[cngmike]

Re: Free Gas

Be mindful of gas composition Hydrogen sulfide plus moisture is very harmful to both systems and storage. Also check BTU. Other units to look at are Bauer compressors and if electricity is hard to come by look around for a used Natural Fuels Package. They made a lot of gas drive packages. Avoid Hurricane compressors.

[freedml]

Re: Free Gas

The key is installing and maintaining a good dryer. If you do that, everything else is easy.

[kipunruh]

Re: Free Gas

Be mindful of gas composition Hydrogen sulfide plus moisture is very harmful to both systems and storage. Also check BTU. Other units to look at are Bauer compressors and if electricity is hard to come by look around for a used Natural Fuels Package. They made a lot of gas drive packages. Avoid Hurricane compressors.

Thank you so much for your response! I am sorry to be so ignorant but though I own my own gas well and my house and barn have been running off it for the last 12 yr.s I've lived here I don't know what Hydrogen sulfide is or how to check the BTU. The well is 50' behind my house so electricity is not a problem.
Would you mind another response to me to help me understand the above questions?
Thanks so much.

[kipunruh]

Re: Free Gas

Buy any CNG vehicles you want except a Contour, get a FMQ2 (not a PHILL) VRA, you'll need a dryer and filter for the well and a regulator to bring down the preassure. And a 220 single phase power source.

Thanks for the advise! I actually have two regulators working to be able to use the gas for my house and barn. I don't have a filter or dryer. Does that come with a FMQ2 VRA or is it a completely seperate fixture attachment?

[CNG MOTORS]

Re: Free Gas

you will have to purchase seperate from the VRA. In Fact Fuelmaker does nto recommend use with anything other than pipeline quality NG. But I've known many people who have one this with out any problems.

[cngmike]

Re: Free Gas

Hydrogen sulfide or h2s is the chemical compound with the formula H2S. This colorless, toxic and flammable gas is responsible for the foul odor of rotten eggs and flatulence. It often results from the bacterial break down of organic matter in the absence of oxygen, such as in swamps and sewers (anaerobic digestion). It also occurs in volcanic gases, natural gas and some well waters. The odor of H2S is commonly misattributed to elemental sulfur, which is in fact odorless. Hydrogen sulfide has numerous names, some of which are archaic. when mixed with moister makes sulfuric acid.

The term "BTU" is used to describe the heat value of fuels, and also to describe the power of heating and cooling systems, such as furnaces, stoves, barbecue grills, and air conditioners.

If it was my well I would find a local lab that could pull a sample off my well and run it through a gas chromatograph. This would tell me if the gas from my well was suitable for this use.

The first thing you need to do is size the compressor you need. compressors are rated my cubic feet per minuet (cfm). You'll need to figure out how many gallons a day you use (be generous). The rule of thumb is 120 cubic feet per gas gallon equivalent. Multiply the needed gallons by 120 and divide this by the minutes available to fuel the vehicles (estimate the minimum usually over night). This is referred to as timed fill. As for dryers there are 2 types of dryers low pressure inlet dryers and high pressure outlet dryers. The main deciding point on which type of dryer to use is the moisture content of the gas from your well and the needed through put (cfm) of the compressor. I still have contacts with used equipment. once you get further along.

[snelson]

Fill station equipment for well gas??

Hello-

I am new to country living and my new home has a working gas well. The home uses 35psi of the 225psi well. Are there home products I can use for well gas? It sounds like the Phil is not rated for well gas?

Thank you,
Shawn

[cngmike]

Re: Fill station equipment for well gas??

You can use a Fuelmaker you will just have to add a regulator before the compressor. I would look at for a fm2 or 4. instead of a phill.

[John Mitton]

Re: Fill station equipment for well gas??

Wow, free gas. That would be great. I am going to merge this thread with another one that was started a little while ago in the CNG Main Forum, so you will now see lots of wisdom following my post from the other discussion!

I see that the Fuelmaker dealer for Kansas is our good friend Tom Sewell of Tulsa Gas Technologies.

http://fuelmaker.com/Dealers/usdealers.htm

He is an active member of our online community with the screen name TOMTGT. You can call him or just click on his name in the post below to send a Personal Message via this web site.

http://cngchat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2297&postcount=6

[snelson]

Re: Free Gas

Thanks cngMike.

Are there any good books out there for me to educate myself better before asking more "bad" questions to the forum? The house already is hooked into the gas well (how I don't know). I was hoping I could add a Fuelmaker to the existing lines just like I would add any gas appliance...get the right fittings and away I go.

Thanks
snelson

[cngmike]

Re: Free Gas

No books that I know of. the standard gas appliance operates on 7"WC. (1/4"Psi.) I wold not be surprised that you don't already have a regulator where the gas comes into the house. don't feel bad about asking questions thats what we are here for.

[cngacrossusa]

Re: Free Gas

Free natural gas 50 ft away . . Wow, I'd help trench the line & install everything if I was your neighbor!!

Check Ebay also as $15,000 to $30,000 would get you a used explosion-proof compressor, even capable of cng fueling for small fleet (either electric motor or natural gas engine).

Another great resource is David Bowgen who has the public cng pump in Springfield, MO and some used cng equipment as well. His information is on the Alternative Fuels Data Center at

http://afdcmap2.nrel.gov/locator/findpane.asp

He would be my first phone call if I were in your shoes.

Finally, given your situation, I would definitely recommend you have storage so you have your own fast-fill cng station.

[cngacrossusa]

Re: Free Gas

Great to hear you are adding a cng compressor for your natural gas well. I met another cng user in Pennsylvania who has same situation as you; while helping him research, I learned from a Canada cng contact that you can actually build a natural gas dryer yourself !! Yep, takes basic parts like pvc pipe, etc.

You may need to talk with Fuelmaker rep about regulator for maximum pressure that can come into Fuelmaker. Also, I don't know whether the dryer would have to be before the regulator, or after. In general, normal pipeline quality home-use natural gas is around 7 psi.

Back to the PA guy with well, see website that he put together documenting his gas well being put in, and subsequent natural gas dryer that he built himself. Looks like very cost efficient setup. He even lists all specific parts needed and suppliers he used!! See at:

http://littlemetalshop.com/

Also likely you will want some storage, so look into setting up a small cascade of cng tanks so you'll have your own fast-fill when you're done.

Good luck . . . and SPREAD THE WORD about terrific benefits of CNG !!