Methane Number

[wingit]

I would like to find the process for calculating the methane number for natural gas. Can anyone help me thanks

 

[TD2K]

Try

http://www.google.com

and 'methane number'.

Methane is assigned a methane number of 100 arbitarily similar to iso-octane being assigned a 100 and n-heptane (I think it's n-heptane) is assigned a value of 0 for octane.

 

[wingit]

I have the Caterpillar program, I wanted to be able to do it manually.

 

[TD2K]

Well, check google, one of the top searches has the formula for calculating the methane number.

 

[owg]

I recall the CFO of a major oil company stating that he was running natural gas in his diesel engines. This struck me as strange. I thought CNG, having a high octane number, would run in Otto Engines. Can anyone clarify this situation for me?

 

[wingit]

There a several companies that offer bi-fuel options for diesel engines. Gas (usually natural gas) is injected into the intake manifold. The amount can be up to 50%, depending on the quality of the gas, without derating the engine. No special modifications are needed for the diesel fuel system, although, vibration sensors are recomended to detect knock (detonation) which is the main concern of using this tecnology. It is a way of lowering the diesel costs by using a lesser expensive gas. I have seen a couple of these installations running with little problem. Gas Tecnologies Incorporated in Fort Lauderdale Fl. is one of the companies offering these systems.

 

[owg]

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[Flareman]

A previous thread in the combustion engineering forum, thread610-29669, gave this link

http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/cng-lpg/appd.PDF

David