Volvo announced they are discontinuing combustible engines, Tesla is rolling out an all electric car for $35k and a major equipment manufacturer has been surveying farmers about switching to methane to save 25% to 40 % compared to diesel . If you could save 25-40% would you switch to methane powered tractors? It would depend on the cost of the tractor but if it was the same price or less because of reduced emissions cost I would take a real hard look how about you ?
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Here’s update from New Holland few months ago about development on their T6.180 prototype methane powered tractor: http://agriculture1.newholland.com/eu/en-uk/about-us/whats-on/news-events/2017/t6-methane-power
Pete
In the 70’s in Southern Ohio many farms had free natural gas from the wells on the farm, including ours…Some would buy old LPG tractors just to run their dryers or a generator…I often thought of capturing the methane from our lagoon to run a generator…So New Hollands idea isn’t that new…Here in Thailand the infrastructure to run on NGV has been in place for a long time…You can drive anywhere in the country on NGV and not fear running out…You see the semi tractors with bunks of LNG tanks everywhere…I’m sure the cost of a new tractor with methane would be prohibitive here though http://www.ngvjournal.com/volvo-trucks-thailand-launches-new-dual-fuel-fm400-for-heavy-applications/
Great insights from Thailand as always Jeff, thanks!!
Pete
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