diesel on natural gas?

[OPCOM]

Not a military diesel, but my 40KW Mankato generator.. When the power frequenctly goes out, it automatically starts. Starts to consume diesel at 1.2 gallons per hour that is.

I have heard of diesels running on propane or natural gas, can canyone explain this and suggest how I might do it? I have plenty of gas here, it works when the electricity goes out, and it would be cheaper if not more convenient.

 

[WillWagner]

Patric, Try this. Wesport converts the diesel into LNG direct injection. Long...50 hrs worth of work..process, and expensive. But I have run these on the dyno and they work as well as the diesel fired ISX. Same HP, torque and the driveability is nice too.

http://www.westport.com/

I don't think there will be a kit to convert your gen though.

 

[CCATLETT1984]

my response would be, if you need 40kw of power when the grid goes down then ~$4 an hour for your power needs isnt expensive at all. If you dont need that kind of capacity, get a smaller genset thats more effecient on fuel.

 

[wreckerman893]

At my Army Reserve unit we had two big gensets that had 60 Series Detriots configured to run on natural gas. I talked to the guy that was installing them and he said they had put spark plugs into them the make them fire better.
They were very big units.

 

[NEIOWA]

Colemans has been trying to sell one or more large Cummins NG powered gensets for ages. Not sure if DOD surplus.

 

[OPCOM]

The 40KW is overkill but it was had very cheaply including a Zenith automatic transfer switch. I can only consume about 12KW continuous max, but the starting loads are higher for the a/c's.