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Permalink Reply by Two Dogs, Pirate on September 16, 2010 at 11:54

It has been going on for quite some time. Shell oil knows a lot about the process. I haven't kept up with the tech but have read about it in the past. My opinion is that natural gas would be a better fuel than synthetic diesel for big trucks. When I read about the stuff they were blending it with diesel kind of like blending ethanol with gasoline. What many don't think about is engine oil and diesel trucks use a bunch of that because it gets dirty from the diesel fuel being burned. Natural Gas burns much cleaner and the engine oil may last 10 times longer running NG.

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Permalink Reply by kittycatmama on September 16, 2010 at 13:20

today was the first time I had heard anything about it. Even though I heard it from a reputable source, I was skeptical.

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Permalink Reply by Two Dogs, Pirate on September 16, 2010 at 14:04

The stuff works and it is clean but I think that is more like a supplement to add to diesel. Most diesel engines require an oiley type fuel that helps lubricate the pistons and walls of the cylinders. That is why they can burn used cooking oil and fire from compression and not spark in the diesel. Try filling up a gasoline fired engine on cooking oil. I have set fire to cooking oil before and it sets all the smoke detectors off in the house. I light my NG heater and it sets nothing off. If you have a diesel in your ride you can add a NG injection system that will boost power and get better mpg. You can replace the NG with Hydrogen and maybe kick out double the HP.

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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on September 17, 2010 at 9:44

If you used a burner designed to burn cooking oil, it would be a lot cleaner. You're using a burner designed for natgas in your natgas heater or stove. If you burn it in the the wrong kind of burner, or from a leak, natgas can be dirty, too. If you take a laboratory natgas bunsen burner and shut off the air holes, it will produce a yellowish sooty flame suitable for coating things with a layer of carbon.

Gas to liquids, coal to liquids, etc. is not that difficult. The trick is doing it and being cheaper than crude oil to liquids.

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Permalink Reply by Henry on September 16, 2010 at 14:18

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process

Fischer-Tropsch reactions can used to create various types of fuels from methane (natural gas). The Air Force has experimented with it to produce jet fuel. As the article says, you can also produce diesel.

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Permalink Reply by Two Dogs, Pirate on September 16, 2010 at 15:02

One article I read back years ago was about a machine that could be placed in the battlefield on top of a NG well and produce the fuel that most DOD machines run on (planes & Tanks etc.). I think it was JP-4. I think that our tax dollars paid for the design of this device with funding for research provided to Texas A&M.

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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on September 17, 2010 at 3:02

The University of Texas has a catalyst system to convert nat. gas into diesel and aircraft fuel. The Nazi's found a way to create Diesel and fuel oil from coal back in WW2. The process is not all that complicated, its just the reorganization of molecules. Hydrocarbons are relativly easyt molecules to manipulate, that is why they are used to manufacture polymers and syntesize other organic compounds.

The problem is with cost and scale.

In order to be cost effective there needs to be a higher price for Crude Oil.

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Permalink Reply by FXEF on September 18, 2010 at 8:06

The thing we need to do is to convert our Nation to natural gas.... not convert natural gas to a liquid hydrocarbon.

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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on September 20, 2010 at 11:21

Getting natgas into some non-cryogenic, non pressurized liquid would be a lot better for vehicle use than CNG or LNG. Handling CNG or LNG will always be more difficult or dangerous than using a liquid fuel.

This could work even if it's something other than what we currently call gasoline or diesel.

The trick is if you can do this without losing too much energy in the process or adding too much cost.

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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on September 21, 2010 at 3:30

Why not. We already have the infrastructure to sell gasoline, if an affordable ethod to convert nat. gas is available we could continue to use existing infrastructure. Also, you can't fly a jet on natural gas.

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