India rolls out its First CNG based Rail Locomotive - Indian Railways Going Green!

[Chanakya's_Chant]

ICF manufactures train running on CNG​

CHENNAI: Integral Coach Factory ( ICF) general manager Ashok K Agarwal on Tuesday flagged off the first CNG DEMU (compressed natural gas diesel electrical multiple unit) manufactured at the factory here.

The CNG DEMU can run on both CNG and diesel.

The Indian Railways has taken steps to make trains eco-friendly. CNG emits fewer toxic and carcinogenic pollutants and zero particulate matter. It also helps reduce carbon monoxide emissions by 90%, carbon dioxide emissions by 25%, nitrogen oxide emissions by 35% and non-methane hydrocarbon emissions by 50%.

The CNG DEMU power car consists of a driver's cab, an engine room and a radiator room, like any other DEMU power car. In additional to these, it has a CNG cascade room at the rear end. The CNG cascade contains 40 cylinders, each with a capacity to store 15kg of CNG at 255 bar pressure.

CNG would help reduce operating costs of locomotives by over 50 per cent, officials said.

At present, Railways runs its fleet of locomotives on diesel and electricity. With prices of both these fuels skyrocketing, natural gas would be the ideal alternative. Apart from the operating costs, the LNG/CNG locomotives would help in controlling pollution as it would eliminate smoke and even lead to significant reductions in other regulated and unregulated emissions like NOx.

“Once Indian Railways switches over completely to natural gas as fuel for its diesel locomotives, it would amount to only 2.2 per cent of India’s annual natural gas consumption of 81 million tons and therefore commercially feasible,” railway officials say.

The new technology would come in handy as India has substantial reserves of natural gas in the form of conventional natural gas, shale gas and gas hydrates.

According to industry estimates, India has 1241 billion cubic metres of conventional gas, 7462.5 billion cubic metres of recoverable shale gas reserves and 1890 trillion cubic metres of gas hydrates.

To use global reserves of natural gas, India is setting up infrastructure for import of LNG into the country.

Source:- ICF manufactures train running on CNG, diesel - The Times of India
Railway locomotives to be on LNG track by 2016 | Business Standard News
Trains may run on natural gas soon -The New Indian Express

Great news for India's Engineering Fraternity Indeed!

 

[gslv mk3]

Great news for India's Engineering Fraternity Indeed!

Great.. but what happened to ICF's aerodynamic dmu cab front end ?

 

[INDIC]

Train engine running on CNG.

 

[Aarush]

kitna degi???

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

kitna degi???

Approximately Double! Natural Gas that is LNG and CNG would help reduce operating costs of locomotives by over 50 per cent - The fact being we have to import fuel from middle east to churn our economy but we won't have to import natural gas which is already available in abundance in KG Basin and adjoining areas!

 

[Trawllu]

good job

will cut costs furthur

Approximately Double! Natural Gas that is LNG and CNG would help reduce operating costs of locomotives by over 50 per cent - The fact being we have to import fuel from middle east to churn our economy but we don't have to import natural gas which is already available in abundance in KG Basin and adjoining areas!

We are importing more than 50% of the natural gas requirements presently
+
to fully exploit the KG basin gas. Motabhai wants to double triple the gas price from 4.2$ to 9-10$ and even take it to 14-16$

so just imagine

increase mileage by 100% from diesel to GAS and then the price of GAS more than doubling to 9-10$

Just Saying

 

[SrNair]

An impressive Engineering feat.

 

[RKO]

Oooooo.......Great news!!!
are there any plans to build metro trains?????

 

[INDIC]

Approximately Double! Natural Gas that is LNG and CNG would help reduce operating costs of locomotives by over 50 per cent - The fact being we have to import fuel from middle east to churn our economy but we don't have to import natural gas which is already available in abundance in KG Basin and adjoining areas!

We also have huge reserve of Shell gas to be used in future.

 

[RISING SUN]

Reporter has mixed two things here. CNG and LNG. It will run on CNG if I am correct. Can anyone throw light on this.?

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

good job

will cut costs furthur




We are importing more than 50% of the natural gas requirements presently
+
to fully exploit the KG basin gas. Motabhai wants to double triple the gas price from 4.2$ to 9-10$ and even take it to 14-16$

so just imagine

increase mileage by 100% from diesel to GAS and then the price of GAS more than doubling to 9-10$

Just Saying

Not really - First of all it's entirely upon the will of the government to decide at what rate that wicked Ambani would sell it to them - they can even terminate that contract and give it to any other company they want - The GoI commands an absoulte effective control over the KG Basin Reserves - It's a National Public Property!

And yes ONGC and Oil India Ltd. (OIL) are still the leading companies with respect to production volume - ONGC supplies around 62% of India's total domestic Natural Gas supply! The Gas Authority of India Ltd.|GAIL] holds an effective control on natural gas transmission and allocation activities. Nothing much to worry about - it's upon Modi to decide!

Reporter has mixed two things here. CNG and LNG. It will run on CNG if I am correct. Can anyone throw light on this.?

Yes on CNG - They are primarily working on Rail Locomotives running on Natural Gas which costs 50% less.

 

[HariPrasad]

kitna degi???

It should give 1 Km per 3 to 4 KG of CNG consumed as per my estimate.

 

[anant_s]

If I am not wrong India is the second nation after US to have done so!

Train engine running on CNG

Yes and not for the first time

Russians too have freight locomotives running on natural Gas GT engines.

RUSSIA: Russian Railways' experimental GT1-001 gas turbine locomotive hauled a trailing load totalling 10 000 tonnes during trials held last month. RZD's Senior Vice-President Valentin Gapanovich said the run on December 20 demonstrated that the natural gas powered locomotive is capable of hauling heavy freight trains of up to 116 wagons.

Intended for use on non-electrified lines in Siberia and the Urals, the experimental locomotive was designed by the All-Russian Scientific Research & Design Engineering Institute and assembled at Voronezh locomotive works.

One half of the twin-section locomotive contains an NK-361 turbine developed by the Samara research institute, while the other section contains a liquefied natural gas tank with a capacity of 17 tonnes, sufficient to cover around 750 km. The maximum power of the locomotive is 8·3 MW, and its total weight is 300 tonnes.

Experiments with natural gas began as long ago as 1984 under the auspices of the Ministry of Railways. In 2006 RZD estimated that around 34 250 route-km of the then 84 707 km network was suitable for use by gas-fuelled or gas turbine locomotives, and using natural gas could save more than 1 million tonnes of diesel a year.
Experimental gas turbine locomotive undertakes haulage tests - Railway Gazette

US Freight giant Union Pacific too used Gas turbine based Engines in the past

All that said, it is indeed a very significant achievement. Not only this technology offers better economy over diesel engine variants, it is also environmentally benign.

 

[halupridol]

 

[anant_s]

It will run on CNG if I am correct.

The fuel used is Compressed Natural Gas indeed and NOT Liquified one.

Shell gas

Sirjee that is SHALE gas

We also have huge reserve

Not huge, but significant.