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Running To Stand Still: Natural Gas and Diesel Power Generation Markets

Engine builders know how to build engines for any application with wheels, but what about applications that don’t have wheels?

By Brendan Baker

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Turns out, many engine builders are experts at building for applications that don’t move as well. And there’s a wide-open market for power system units that either run an electrical generator or power another system such as an irrigation pump through a power take off (PTO) shaft.

While there are a number of large, established players in the market, especially for diesel generators, there are some newer players that have found a niche. SRC Power Systems from Springfield, MO has been tinkering around with diesel generators for over two decades, but it has been in the last year that it decided to take a big turn and head into the natural gas power generation market. We talked to SRC Power Systems General Manager Kevin Snyder and Product Sales Engineer Doug Evans about their newest market venture.

Snyder says that SRC manufactures gensets and power systems for several markets that have load requirements ranging from 20-125 kW. The engines that power these units are typically an automotive or industrial engine base producing from 30-200 hp. SRC’s Doug Evans says that his company’s gensets run mainly on diesel and natural gas (LPG).

The smaller horsepower gas gensets use automotive style blocks, notes Evans. “The 20-120 hp engines with automotive style blocks are either inline-6 or V8s. We have two versions of a spark ignited diesel at 125 and 200 hp, and the base engine is an International Harvester 466 that has been gasified (converted to natural gas).

“We have customers from several different markets who we refer to as OEMs – they can be found in a variety of custom applications, such as serving the oil and gas industry,” says Evans. “Propane and natural gas engines are used to pump the oil and gas out of the ground and send it down the pipeline.”

Snyder and Evans say another up-and-coming market seems to be in agriculture and farming, specifically irrigation power units. They see growth because of the high price of diesel these days along with issues associated with becoming Tier 4 compliant by many of the larger stationary diesel manufacturers.

“The current cost of diesel is a big driving force to alternative fuels,” says Snyder. “Plus, a lot of the diesel guys are getting a little worried about Tier 4 emission regulations that will go into effect this time next year. That’s going to drive diesel prices up 10-35 percent depending on whose engine you use. So a lot of these guys are abandoning the diesel side now.”