On 08-11-97 Craig Healy wrote to Alec Cameron... 
 
 CH> 
MSGID: 1:323/120.0 226f6766 
 CH> 
PID: ViaMAIL! v1.30  97-0512 
 CH> Re: Low RPM, high torgue engine for cogeneration. 
 
 CH> That's why it's all on paper (or bytes!), and not a wrench has been 
 CH> turned.  To see if the project is practical.  So far, there has been 
 CH> some opinions offered by folks with some good experience in the 
 CH> field.  But I don't believe anyone has actually tried this. 
 CH> 
 CH> I have been working with high-performance engines for 30+ years. 
 CH> There is a tremendous body of work in improving efficiency in the 
 CH> field.  Roller rockers, recently adopted for production by GM. 
 CH> Roller tappets, also now used for production.  Lapped-end rings 
 CH> for reduced leak-down.  Under 1%, rather than 3% normally found. 
 CH> Synthetic oils.  The list goes on.  My thought was to gather all
 CH> these things in one place to see if the efficiency could be made 
 CH> to work.  Natural gas is clean, and not hard on the engine.  Oil 
 CH> stays clean for a *long* time.  And the proposed low RPM would 
 CH> be easier on parts, and the ears in terms of vibration. 
 CH> 
 Where is this information available, the bytes tha you are referring to? 
 And what would be the cost of trying to do a project like this? 
 Although, I don't think any fossil fuel is going to be the answer, 
 however, I have made my living in the quest for it. Natural gas is 
 probably always going to be the cleanest burning of all of the fossil 
 fuels.  I am not sure how far they can go with cleaning up the way a 
 diesel breaks its fuel down, there are limits I would imagine. 
 I have always like diesel the best because of the amount of power it 
 can produce, from the fuel it uses if it is used right, durability is 
another 
 factor.  A good propane or natural gas engine can have the same durability 
 if it is optimized for their use and then run at the optimum speeds for 
 torque and power.  I have seen big natural gas engines offshore, that 
 are Catepillars that are actually diesel engines that are converted to use 
 the natural gas that is available coming off of the wells that are producing 
 on the platforms that they live on. Cat does the conversion on their own 
 engines and are available as the same engine series but they start the model 
 number with a big G instead of big D. There are several of the engine 
 manufacturers of the big power plants who do this,Waukesau is another. 
 They don't ever seem to wear out, they run for years and years. 
 Most of the time 24 hours a day, while doing those years and years. 
 Only emergencies or unusual conditions will cause a shut in on the gas 
 compressors, and you surely don't want the generator to go down. 
 I enjoyed your post. 
 Cliff 
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