[thackney]

two parts NG makes one part diesel ... it's an ultimate loser.

Not when the cost of diesel per BTU is 6 times the cost of Natural Gas per BTU.

Natural Gas has been running in the $3.50~4.00 per million BTU for the price to an industrial customer.

United States Natural Gas Industrial Price
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n3035us3m.htm

Diesel Wholesale price is running about $22~25 per million BTUs.

Ultra-Low-Sulfur No. 2 Diesel Fuel Spot Prices
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_spt_s1_d.htm

With an abundance of supply and relatively low cost, there is no reason to spend a couple BTU to convert the energy to a more usable form. Just as we do converting low price coal into electricity for ease of use, converting natural gas to diesel for ease of storage and transportation works.

[knarf]

I f'got about you, thackney ... sorry ... you ARE our in house energy expert.

Thanx for your knowledge.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Moving a low to medium rank fuel into a high rank fuel makes loads of sense. Just a coal beings in big, stationary power plants.

But upgrading coal to motor fuel, the producer should expect to sell it for a higher price...

[sitetest]

Dear thackney,

The article says that the plant will use about 1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas. In terms of energy equivalence, that appears to be around 7 million gallons of diesel per day, if my calculations are correct.

However, I imagine that some of the natural gas will be “lost” in the process. Do you have some idea of how much diesel the plant will be able to produce from the reported input of 1 billion cubic feet per day?

Thanks,

sitetest