Natural Gas Portable Mining Unit

[McKaig]

Can you please explain what the idea of a portable mining unit is? Do you follow the seasons and always move to locations where is currently winter? Or is the portability required because when the natural gas resources are dried up you have to go to the next field?

Maybe it's better to select an always cold location with low electricity costs and stay there if you consider all the effort you have to put in to find the right location, rent the premises and check the legal things.

It's appealing to me, for a few different reasons.

- Electricity where I live is expensive.  I can build a 20ft shipping container, and deliver it to wherever electricity is cheaper.  I can also relocate the pod whenever it makes sense to do so, for cheaper electricity.
- Political risk.  If I have my pod hosted in a region, and that government outlaws crypto/mining/whatever, I disconnect, and ship the container to the next location.  I'm back online sooner than tearing down and rebuilding an operation.
- I can remotely monitor and control everything.  Sending your equipment to a hosting site, you can't really control airflow, temperatures, etc.

[McKaig]

Are these calculations correct?  I did not research to confirm the "1 GJ = 278 kWh" part.

This calculation is confirmed.  From my research, 1 m3 of Nat Gas, will produce roughly 10 kWh.

So, I guess this just begs the question, how much will the infrastructure cost to setup a 24/7 Natural Gas generator/microturbine be?

[Merptastic]

Where are you building this?  

We have extremely cheap Natural Gas in my area, and Im starting to get ideas.  I've already designed a 20ft container capable of housing 54 S9's, however would rely on external power source.  Nat Gas is very interesting..  

By cheap, want to give a rough cost per GJ?

Natural gas in my area cost about $4.7 USD per GJ (converts to roughly 278 kWh).

That being said, I have no idea just how efficient these natural gas generators. I've checked Cummins website and it's only specified as "Incredibly Efficient Operation". I'd be nice to have a number.

Our rates are listed in CAD $/m3.  Link to rates:  https://www.uniongas.com/residential/rates/current-rates/rate-m1

How did you determine how many kWh you can generate per GJ?  

I've been looking into Microturbines to see if this method could be viable.  What I do know is that our area has an abundance of Nat Gas, and I have two uncles who work in senior management positions at the utility company, who could help me negotiate larger commercial pricing.

1 Watt = 1 Joule per second
1 Joule = 1 Watt * 1s

1 GJ = 1e+9 Joules
3600 seconds in an hour
1e+9 / 3600 = 277777
= ~278 kWh

Let me know if my math is correct, did this kinda fast.

Also this is just the rate, the price I quoted above does not take into account the service/delivery fee for the gas company.

[Upstream]

We also looked into a microturbine, but the costs (capital and maintenance) did not really compare to the genset I'm using.

I'll have a nice update soon, with more details on our source. I spent 14 hours today commissioning the unit and trouble shooting bugs in our programming. More of that tomorrow. Once I get her purring along I will update with some nice pics.

PS our power cost is $0 at the moment

[Merptastic]

We also looked into a microturbine, but the costs (capital and maintenance) did not really compare to the genset I'm using.

I'll have a nice update soon, with more details on our source. I spent 14 hours today commissioning the unit and trouble shooting bugs in our programming. More of that tomorrow. Once I get her purring along I will update with some nice pics.

PS our power cost is $0 at the moment

You're getting natural gas for free?

(Also your picture URL isn't working again)

[McKaig]

We also looked into a microturbine, but the costs (capital and maintenance) did not really compare to the genset I'm using.

I'll have a nice update soon, with more details on our source. I spent 14 hours today commissioning the unit and trouble shooting bugs in our programming. More of that tomorrow. Once I get her purring along I will update with some nice pics.

PS our power cost is $0 at the moment

What generator did you choose?  If I was in Alberta it would be interesting to visit.

[Upstream]

GM 5.7L V8 running a 66 kW stamford gen

[mustangy]

Someone add gas prices in us and consumption converted  to kWh/ cents please my brain burned at this point to figure it,
here is the link new york state gas prices
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/NG_PRI_SUM_DCU_SNY_M.htm

[McKaig]

Someone add gas prices in us and consumption converted  to kWh/ cents please my brain burned at this point to figure it,
here is the link new york state gas prices
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/NG_PRI_SUM_DCU_SNY_M.htm

Read up a few posts... we did the math.

A big consideration is how efficient the generator or microturbine is.  I kind of stopped looking into it's feasability when the advertised efficiency of the microturbines I was looking at is under 30%..

[gbBit]

Are there any updates on this project?  I would like to see how you're running after your 1st couple of weeks.

[darkshad]

bump.

Would be interested in how much money a natural gas setup would cost along with cost of maintenance for 1 year.  Don't have cheap electricity where I am.  It's around in the 11-15 cents per kwh which is a bit a bit above average - more in the summer.  Know that natural gas is cheaper, but don't know how the cost would compare to electricity, especially factoring in the cost of  a natural gas generator/maintenance.

[legendster]

Yeah this particular genset is a 5.7L GM, pretty common for natural gas.

Cost is a secret

The cost of the genset is not a secret. They go between $10k to $15k depending on the brand. Installation and electrical labor extra.
Essentially you are tapping into a 'free' energy reserve and I am assuming you do not want to disclose what was your acquisition cost of this gas reserve? Did you factor the cost of acquisition of this gas reserve into the economic statistic of this mine?

[Upstream]

Hey all, I apologize for not updating this recently, we've been extremely busy launching this new company.

I've started a new thread here, now that we are commercializing this product:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2817007.new#new

Locking this thread, thanks for your interest.

-Upstream