Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas

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rfdfirecaptain

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Re: Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas

we are at least a decade away from an electric boat.

IMO? I see no reason why we don?t already have the ?electric? boat for pleasure boaters like ourselves. Those drive train systems already exist in large ships and trains. Personally I think that is the long-term answer for boaters using inboard engines, to get better fuel economy as opposed to using alternative fuels.

Unfortunately, and I think someone else already mentioned this? the boat building industry is lagging in research and development to overcome the problem we all face? the cost of fuel. I?m a professional firefighter with farm boy engineering experience, but I think professional engineers could easily design a system that uses a small engine (in horsepower and physical size/weight) to provide electrical current for propulsion and 110v for creature comforts. Wouldn?t that be great?
 

QC

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Re: Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas

Check these threads out:

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=460447

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=390905

IMO? I see no reason why we don?t already have the ?electric? boat for pleasure boaters like ourselves. Those drive train systems already exist in large ships and trains. Personally I think that is the long-term answer for boaters using inboard engines, to get better fuel economy as opposed to using alternative fuels.

Why do you think that would give you better fuel efficiency? You lose in this equation. Conversion from mechanical to electrical eats fuel . . . No regenerative braking in marine. Largest marine diesels are direct drive.
 

HT32BSX115

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Re: Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas

Check these threads out:

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=460447

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=390905



Why do you think that would give you better fuel efficiency? You lose in this equation. Conversion from mechanical to electrical eats fuel . . . No regenerative braking in marine. Largest marine diesels are direct drive.

Absolutely right!.......you would lose BIG time!

You "lose" power in the generator (heating it up) and you lose power in the electric motor also heating it up. (resistive losses)

The gasoline or diesel engine producing a particular shaft HP (here we go again!:rolleyes:) at it's most efficient RPM would be connected to a generator operating at it's most efficient RPM, voltage and current.

Then you would connect that voltage through a control system (which would have losses) to an electric motor (which has losses). All of which have significant losses.

There would be losses before the propeller even started turning!!

Batteries also have a very low energy to weight ratio..... by comparison to a gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel.


Unless you're going to troll around with a couple of batteries and a Minn Kota in your 14ft skiff, forget about electric power in a boat
 

wagnerz

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Re: Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas

"No regenerative braking in marine." There is tons of regenerative braking. Imagine if like 3 little turbines dropped down as you were slowing down. The same way a dam creates energy. The problem is, though, as boaters we dont normally spend a lot of time slowing down. We are just moving the entire time. So as far as that aspect goes, there would definitely not be enough energy created by regenerative braking.
 

rfdfirecaptain

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Re: Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas

QC? I read in one of the threads that professionally you work with natural gas, in heavy truck applications. Do you also work with electric motor driven propulsion systems? Just curious.

I?m not quite following you and I have only read through just one of those threads. It doesn?t appear that this thread is going to produce a magical alternative fuel widget that we?d all love to see. So maybe it's time to move on to something else.

Tonight I?ll start another thread on electrical driven propulsion systems? converting from mechanical to electrical. I?d like you to follow up. I have a few questions for you about the conversion loss you mentioned? in addition to a few others maybe you or someone else could address.

[EDIT]: now that I see the last post by HT32BSX115 I would like to ask your you also chime in on the thread I will start tonight on this topic.
 

HT32BSX115

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Re: Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas

Tonight I?ll start another thread on electrical driven propulsion systems? converting from mechanical to electrical. I?d like you to follow up. I have a few questions for you about the conversion loss you mentioned? in addition to a few others maybe you or someone else could address.

[EDIT]: now that I see the last post by HT32BSX115 I would like to ask your you also chime in on the thread I will start tonight on this topic.

Keith,


While I don't work in the industry, I did get my schooling in Electrical Engr. (BSEE Cal St Fresno 1978)

Basic "Power Engr" 101 always includes electric (AC, DC, single & 3 phase, synchronous and non-synchronous) motor analysis and design etc....

Electric motor design hasn't changed much in 50 years or so, and as such, the efficiency of an electric motor or generator hasn't changed much either.

They still have friction (bearings), resistive ("copper") and magnetic losses that are NOT zero and will NEVER be zero. There's been some theoretical "Star-Trek" things we can do like frictionless bearings, and super conductors but they're still largely theoretical.

So as a result, motor (and generator) efficiency are pretty much fixed. somewhere around 90% and less..... So if you try to do a reciprocating engine driving a generator, powering an electric motor, you START with a nearly 20% loss right out of the "chute"........You just can't circumvent the laws of physics.

One of my favorite sites for reference is the "Engineering Tool box"
View attachment 122320

There's a great page on electric motor efficiency. Have a look at it.
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/electrical-motor-efficiency-d_655.html

It discusses motor efficiency better than any of us can on a boating website.


Regards,


RIck
 

QC

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Re: Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas

The problem is, though, as boaters we dont normally spend a lot of time slowing down. We are just moving the entire time. So as far as that aspect goes, there would definitely not be enough energy created by regenerative braking.
I think you just confirmed my point . . . :)
 

QC

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Re: Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas

QC? I read in one of the threads that professionally you work with natural gas, in heavy truck applications. Do you also work with electric motor driven propulsion systems? Just curious.
I sort of work with all alternative and "conventional" systems. Stationary (gen sets etc.), Marine and primarily wheeled vehicles. I specialize in Nat Gas and Diesel.

I?m not quite following you and I have only read through just one of those threads. It doesn?t appear that this thread is going to produce a magical alternative fuel widget that we?d all love to see. So maybe it's time to move on to something else.
We don't need a magic widget; they totally exist for LPG and CNG/LNG. However . . . none that I know of that are marine "certified". The safety concern with LPG, like gasoline, is it's heavier than air. Methane (CNG or LNG), while lighter than air, their respective storage systems are very expensive, heavy and do in fact require more space for each unit of fuel (LPG too). You simply do not burn enough fuel to pay it back. Commercial? Maybe. Pleasure craft. Not likely. I have absolutely seen LPG converted ski boats in the UK at a ski school. They run them every day there.
 

O-fishal

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Re: Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas

I have never seen a fuel dock with propane or CNG????????????????
 

QC

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Re: Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas

BTW, in case anyone is confused, I think this is stupid for pleasure craft, and I do it for a living. The industry is in fact doing a lot of LNG for commercial vessels. Norway leads the way:

ford1540.jpg


And there are also dual-fuel (nat gas in a diesel engine which is specifically what I do) LNG tanker propulsion engines (electric drive):

carousel.jpg


lng.jpg


Yes, electric drive. Don't let that mess you up. It has more to do with transmission (non)availability ;) The largest ship in the world has a single screw diesel and you start it backwards for reverse . . .
 

HT32BSX115

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Re: Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas

BTW, in case anyone is confused, I think this is stupid for pleasure craft, and I do it for a living. The industry is in fact doing a lot of LNG for commercial vessels. Norway leads the way:

ford1540.jpg


And there are also dual-fuel (nat gas in a diesel engine which is specifically what I do) LNG tanker propulsion engines (electric drive):

carousel.jpg


lng.jpg


Yes, electric drive. Don't let that mess you up. It has more to do with transmission (non)availability ;) The largest ship in the world has a single screw diesel and you start it backwards for reverse . . .

Same thing applies to a diesel electric locomotive.... There just isn't a transmission that will work reliably for any length of time with them. The bigger the vehicle, the more practical these drive systems become.


The bigger the boat, the more "practical" it can be ...........

It's MUCH harder (and maybe practically impossible) to scale these systems small pleasure boats....


One also has to remember that governments do a LOT of things for political reasons that would NOT make practical sense to anyone else trying to make a profit (or even break even!)
 

dan t.

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Re: Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas

OK I got to chip in on this, there is a practicaly free alternative fuel out there, wood, to fuel your steam engine. Steam powered boats have been around for close to 200 years, personaly I know next to nothing about it but we must have a steam engineer somewhere amongst the membership, how about some input on this subject
 

HT32BSX115

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Re: Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas

Except in the oil fields......They changed the name to "Steam Generator" and eliminated the need for an operator!
 

oldsub86

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Re: Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas

I am coming in on this late and do not have the expertise of some of those who have already posted. However I will offer my $.02 as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_natural_gas

According to this article, there are lots of vehicles out there running around on CNG.

However, the disadvantages likely outweigh any advantages so long as gasoline is readily available.

I looked into a conversion of a truck to propane fuel in the 80's. The one drawback was the space for a 2nd tank as I wanted a dual fuel setup given that propane filling stations were not common outside of cities. I wanted to do a Chevy Suburban but did not want the tank inside and did not see real space for a propane tank as well as the normal gasoline tank being there.
I did drive an 80's Chevy 4X4 pickup truck with a small block V8 converted to propane that belonged to a friend. It ran fine and one really would not have known it was propane apart from a bit of an upleasant exhaust smell - not terrible but not appealing to me at any rate.
At one time, almost all of the taxi cabs here in Winnipeg were big old GM 4 door sedans converted to propane. The advent of the fuel injected engines pretty much put the conversion people out of business, I believe. Now, almost all of the cabs here are Toyota Prius.

I also have a friend who visits Italy occasionally to see family. He talks of cars powered by some form of compressed fuel - I believe CNG and their being much less expensive to drive than gasoline powered cars. He said a family member picked him up at the airport and they drove a distance accross Italy in the car. It un-nerved him a bit when they stopped to fill up and the car was driven into a concrete bunker and everyone stayed far back while it was filled up, just in case it blew up.

The loss of power is also an issue. I believe, when I was looking into converting my Suburban, I was told I should have a large motor in very good condition as I could expect to lose about 15 to 20% of the power I was accustomed to.

I have a Winco generator powered by a 2 Cylinder Wisconsin Engine with a propane carb. It is designed to put out a maximum of 10 Kw. It can be run on Natural Gas, but the book then says it will only produce 8 Kw. So, if we swap a gasoline engine to CNG, I am guessing we may be looking at a loss of close to 40%. Running a 2nd engine is not likely going to be much cheaper than just running the existing engine.

I too have looked at the idea of electric boats. The only way that is going to work is with a very slow displacement hull boat. Think of the old Elco. The batteries weigh a lot and you need a lot of them to go very far. There was a story in a magazine (am I permitted to say which magazine?) a while back about a river cruiser in Australia that could manage pretty good with a lot of photo cells on the roof but it was not very fast and not built for rough water.

Diesel appears to be the way to go but is expensive, noisy and smelly compared to most small gasoline engines. I like diesel. I have a 1976 Mercedes 300D. It puts out 77 HP and hauls my car down the highway at cruising speeds. However, in comparison to a modern small fuel injected gasoline engine, it really is not a model of efficiency either. In 1976, compared to most north American cars, it was efficient and cheap to operate. Diesel was cheap etc. Now, my wife's Honda Accord of about the same physical size has more power with a 4 cylinder gas engine and makes better mileage and the fuel costs less per gallon. Not a winning combination maybe to put a diesel in my boat.

The answer to inexpensive boating is probably to go back in time to the displacement hull era. A small diesel in a fairly long narrow efficient displacement hull will take you a long way on a gallon of fuel- but generally, you are not going to get there very fast. No water skiing (sp?) will occur.

There have been some interesting boats built in recent years that have done fairly well on fuel. I cannot recall the name but again an article in a certain magazine was about a boat built in New Zealand that ran fairly quickly and handled rough water and made good mileage with a small diesel from a Toyota pickup truck if my memory is accurate. The boat was again, long and narrow and built to be light. I doubt one could load it up with 10 people but with a couple it did fine.

Another was the Rescue Minor tunnel hull boat built in Georgia by the fellow who has since passed away. It ran fast and cheaply with a little Kubota diesel but was not built for offshore use and only for one or 2 people.

No real easy answers to fast cheap boating are there?

Randy
 

Maxm503

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What about looking at how people do theirs in trucks do same add a blower that has no electrical to the engine room run a fan from topside through tubing AL all times when changing cylenders and d test it the gm 350 has been done a lot
 
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