Skip to content

Dual-fuel conversion saves big money every day, supplier-trucker says

One trucking company had so much success with dual-fuel conversions it’s now selling them to other fleets.

Engine Smarts by Tom Berg, Senior Editor

A band wagon powered by natural gas seems to have begun rolling, but most of those aboard talk about brand-new heavy trucks with special gas-burning engines. Why not convert existing trucks and engines to use cheap and clean-burning gas?

That’s the message delivered by several suppliers in a session during the Alternative Clean Fuels Expo, held last month in Long Beach, Calif. One is a trucker who is saving so much money with a conversion that he now makes and sells the device himself.

Michael Kilbourne, who runs a small fleet out of South Carolina, said he struggled for years with the high cost of diesel fuel and tried to figure out how he could bring that down. Cheap natural gas was the answer, he thought, but “I couldn’t afford a dedicated system” in a new truck.

He looked closely at the idea of injecting gas along with diesel in his existing truck engines, a process known as fumigation and now commonly called dual fuel, and concluded that it was the easiest way.

He found partners with the technical know-how to develop and assemble a system, and began installing it on his tractors. The results were astounding to him, and he offered an example.

On a regular 1,375-mile run from Albermarle, N.C., to Laredo, Texas, one of his rigs usually averages 5.5 mpg on diesel. On a recent trip his dual-fuel system ran the tractor’s engine on 65% natural gas, and calculations showed that the total fuel bill was $593.75, or $406.29 less than with diesel alone.

Those kinds of savings are seen on every tractor he’s equipped with the system, Kilbourne said.

A questioner wanted to know what the combined gas-and-diesel mpg number was, but Kilbourne and others on the panel advised listeners not to worry about it. A combined mpg number is a little complicated to calculate, and it will be lower because gas has less energy than diesel. So concentrate on the cost of the two fuels, especially gas, they said.

Dual Fuel Savings

Dual-fuel systems usually displace diesel at the rate of 40% to 60%, with the amount depending on load factor, terrain and other variables in an operation, said the supplier representatives on the panel.

This means that $4-a-gallon diesel is replaced by gas that costs less than $2 per equivalent gallon, and that can save hundreds of dollars per day for each truck, as Kilbourne’s example shows.

“We use it every day, and it’s been refined, tested and approved” by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Kilbourne said of his system, called Green Fuel Pro. “It’s been successful for four years, and now I’m ready to share it with others.”

It’s been so successful that Kilbourne now calls his trucking company Green Pro. Information on his transportation services and the dual-fuel product are at www.greenprofuels.com.

Conversion Kits

Lower fuel costs help pay for a conversion, and its comparatively low cost makes it even more attractive. For about $30,000 to $35,000, a good truck or tractor can be set up to run on compressed or liquefied natural gas – CNG and LNG, respectively – plus diesel, which is what the Green Fuel Pro and other kits do.

That includes gas fuel lines, an injector near the turbocharger, and replacing one diesel saddle tank with a gas tank. The truck’s other diesel tank is retained.

A new heavy truck equipped to burn natural gas costs $165,000 or more. Government grants can pay part of the “incremental” (additional) cost of a new natural gas truck, but a dual-fuel conversion is so reasonable that it makes sense on its own, the presenters said.

Also, dual-fuel systems mean operators needn’t worry about running out of gas somewhere out on the road. If the gas tank is empty, the truck switches back to all-diesel and continues on its way.

An important development occurred last year, when the EPA eased its rules for certification of aftermarket. This has allowed suppliers of the systems to take approved products to market. But the panelists complained that the California Air Resources Board requires very expensive certification of aftermarket conversions, making them financially impractical.

Three other presenters in the ACT Expo session also talked about success with dual-fuel conversions, and a fourth described a process that converts diesels to spark-ignition to burn straight natural gas. We’ll write about them in future Fuel Smarts articles.

Printer Friendly Version
Email This Story
RSS
Bookmark and Share

Engine Smarts: Related News

6/15/2012 – Dual-fuel conversion saves big money every day, supplier-trucker says
A band wagon powered by natural gas seems to have begun rolling, but most of those aboard talk about brand-new heavy trucks with special gas-burning engines. Why not convert existing trucks and engines to use cheap and clean-burning gas?…
More

6/5/2012 – Natural Gas Pump Prices Won’t Rise Much, Clean Energy Exec Says
Prices paid at the pump for natural gas by truck operators won’t rise much even if gas’s basic price doubles, said an executive with Clean Energy, a company now setting up retail NG filling stations and selling the fuel….
More

6/4/2012 – Hybrids in Yosemite
As we head into summer vacation season, it’s worth noting that hybrids are being used in a somewhat unexpected place – California’s Yosemite National Park….
More

5/31/2012 – Does natural gas make sense as a truck fuel? Why not use it to make stuff that’s easier to handle?
Natural gas! Almost everything’s natural gas! That was my impression while walking through the displays at the Alternative Clean Transportation Expo in early May at the Long Beach Convention Center. Suppliers were offering all sorts of equipment and services connected to this fuel that’s so much in the news….
More

5/29/2012 – Renewable DME vs. U.S. Natural Gas
Volvo just told the world about its LNG engine coming in 2014 at a recent press gathering in Miami Beach and discussed the future of DME fuel – that’s dimethyl ether – in North America….
More

5/23/2012 – Turbine-Electric Hybrid Whirs and Whooshes But Saves Fuel, Maker Says
A chrome-plated exhaust stack emits a muted whoosh as this truck’s turbine engine spins at tens of thousands of RPMs, drawing the curious among attendees at this ride-and-drive event in downtown Long Beach, Calif. …
More

5/18/2012 – Alternative Fuels Mean Energy Independence, Say ACT Expo Speakers
Suppliers of alternative fuels and the equipment that burns them must cooperate to move America toward energy self-sufficiency and economic growth, says retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark,…
More

5/1/2012 – What’s up with biodiesel?
Bet you didn’t celebrate National Biodiesel Day, did you? March 18 if you were wondering….
More

4/13/2012 – ‘Virtual’ Vertical Integration?
Three weeks after the Mid-America Trucking Show, while I munch on very small, very rich chocolate eggs that were left on my desk by some generous rabbit, I find myself at the keyboard pondering a few things I learned and heard in Louisville. And one in particular….
More

4/3/2012 – Cutting Fuel Use by Recovering Waste Heat
Very quietly, Cummins Turbo Technologies offered a glimpse of its advanced waste-heat expander prototype at the Mid-America Trucking Show recently….
More

3/9/2012 – On the Horizon: New Engines, New Fuels
From a seminar on sustainable transportation at the Sweden House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, a glimpse over the horizon, such as a camless engine and turning waste into fuel:…
More

3/7/2012 – Big 3 Going for CNG-Gasoline Bi-Fuel Systems in Pickups
Detroit’s Big Three light-truck builders are embracing compressed natural gas, if not as the dominant fuel of the future then as a major alternative to gasoline and diesel….
More

2/27/2012 – Some Cleaner Diesels Unreliable, Expensive, Say Fleet Execs in TMC ‘Report Card’
Some clean diesels of the 2000s have been disruptively unreliable and most are discouragingly expensive, but performance has improved as manufacturers try hard to fix them, said fleet executives at last week’s annual meeting of the Technology Maintenance Council….
More

2/14/2012 – Vertical Integration Yields More Profits, Navistar Executives Tell Stock Analysts
Does it make sense for a truck builder to limit customers’ engine choices to just one line of products? It does if the engines are its own, because it makes more money.

That is among the assertions made by Navistar International Corp.’s top executives to stock market researchers during the company’s annual Analysts Day Feb. 1 at its shining and sprawling new headquarters in Lisle, Ill., west of Chicago. …
More

1/31/2012 – Top Dealers Talk about 2010 Engines
So far, the new engines built to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2010 emissions mandate are performing far better than their EPA-2007 predecessors. That was the consensus of this year’s nominees for the American Truck Dealers/Heavy Duty Trucking Truck Dealer of the Year….
More

1/23/2012 – ‘Tall’ gearing and a big engine deliver 12 mpg in a Class 7 truck, expedited-freight hauler claims
“Tall” gearing and a large engine are giving an expedited freight hauler the high fuel economy he sought, even if most factory engineers won’t approve his spec’ing requests….
More

1/10/2012 – Engines: Pistons Still In, But Think Outside the Block
The engine of the future is probably the one under the hood or cab of your current truck….
More

12/21/2011 – Parked Next Door: A Study in Engine Apps

The other day, a remodeling contractor was working at the next-door neighbors’ house and I eyeballed the two trucks that he sent his workers and supplies in….
More

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER
I agree to have my personal information transfered to MailChimp ( more information )
Join over 3.000 visitors who are receiving our newsletter and learn how to optimize your blog for search engines, find free traffic, and monetize your website.
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.
Tax, Accounting, Consulting - Emil Estafanous, CPA, CFF, CGMA