In order to analyze the cost of converting to Bi-Fuel, these are some of the considerations:
Bi-Fuel Economics
Below are some theoretical calculations to determine the baseline conditions running at a fixed 1000 kilowatt load.
- For a particular diesel engine the consumption was 54 gallons/hour of diesel
- For diesel fuel, the price was $1.50/gallon,
- For natural gas, the price was $5.50/MCF
Gas Equivalent Gallon (GEG) diesel = 0.14 MCF natural gas
|
Price to run on natural gas |
=
5.50 x 0.14
= $0.77/GEG |
For
100% diesel hourly cost,
54 gallons @ $1.50/gal = $81.00/hour
1000 kilowatts = $81.00
Operating cost for diesel = 8.1 cents/kw-hr
For the equivalent engine run on natural gas,
|
Operating cost for natural gas |
=
5.50 x 0.14 x 54
= $41.58 |
Operating cost for natural gas = 4.2 cents/kw-hr
In actual operating conditions, the natural gas used will be ranging from 50% to 70% by volume of the fuel. This makes the actual cost to be around 5.4 cents/kw-hr.
GTI Bi-Fuel System-Based Power Generation vs The Electric Utility
Below are the estimates for a Bi-Fuel system based power generation compared to the electric utility charges. Naturally,
this will be based on the peak charges for that country. A typical savings on peak demand electricity rate at 1000 kilowatts can be estimated
as follows:
- Peak operating hours: 1500/year
- "On-peak" cost of electricity: 14.0 cents/kw-hr
- Bi-Fuel operating cost (fuel): 5.4 cents/kw-hr
- Other operating costs (depreciation & maintenance): 1.5 cents/kw-hr
- Total Bi-Fuel operating cost: 6.9 cents/kw-hr
- Savings on Bi-Fuel: 7.1 cents/kw-hr
- Annual savings with generator operating on Bi-Fuel: $10,650.00