Natural Gas Passat content!

[formoeshin]

Long story short, one of the businesses I work at started another company and one of the things we are doing is importing compressed natural gas(CNG) conversions for automobiles of almost any type. As part of training I got a couple of kits for the v-dubs for next to nothing so I thought I would share what I've learned from the passat on here! Introducing the beasty in question:


First, I unfortunately didn't have my camera for the first day when all the big work took place(installing the tank, running the high pressure line). I do have a few of cleaning up the wiring and heater lines.

Here is the rundown: you have a tank and from it you run stainless steel tubing to a two stage regulator, pictured below:

This regulator reduces the pressure from 3000 PSI to about 5 to 20 PSI. Once the pressure of the natural gas has been reduced it runs to the intake tube right before the throttle body ideally. There is an electronic valve in this tube that opens and closes according to what the oxygen sensor is saying the mixture is.

Here is the mess before I got it all cleaned up:

You can see the black heater hoses going through the steel in front of the heater core which is where they tee in. These are needed to keep the regulator from freezing up - any time you quickly reduce the pressure of something(compressed natural gas in this case) it gets VERY cold. The regulator has a loop around the heater core too keep this from happening. I have noticed zero loss in heater performance from this.

Here is a good look down in the engine bay of the regulator as I am cutting slack out of wiring and re-soldering everything. Note the yellow kline linesman dikes. These things are the so high quality its worth mentioning - I did all of the finesse wire stripping and cutting with those huge things. Not a broken strand once. =)


This is the tank in the trunk. The only real drawback is that your lose some space but there is still more then enough room The device on the right side with the green cap is the fill nozzle. The tank is a carbon composite wrapped around an inner aluminum cylinder, very lightweight and very safe. This was the main fear I had about this conversion but as soon as I did research I found how safe they really are. You can drop them from 50 feet, shoot them with a gun, burn them in a fire and all they do is vent. With a flash point of over 1000 degrees, its much safer then gasoline.

This is still a work in progress as I have yet to install the venting cover on the cylinder valve that will go out the floor but I thought I'd post some pictures as is for now.

Here is the level indicator and on/off switch. You can run CNG or gasoline whenever you want and swap back and forth on the fly.


Here it is all done up. The open face filter is a very unfortunate must in this case because it was the only way to afford the room I needed to install the regulator and all that goes with it. I'll be looking for some way to create a heat shield next...


Well, thats about it. The total retail cost for something like this is around $2500.00 depending on what kind of tank you use. There is a power loss on this type of system of about 5%. If you use a more advanced sequential system there is no power loss but its more expensive and requires you to drill holes in the manifold for CNG injectors...didn't wanna do that.

CNG has 1 carbon to gasoline's 8 carbons! The ramifications of this alone is a huge advantage to gasoline as it wont crud up the engine with carbon deposits and the carbon output from the exhaust is MUCH cleaner. The fact that it is 70 to 80 cents a gallons where I live is also obviously a boon(and that there is a CNG fill station 10 minutes from my house).

Well, that's it. I haven't seem anyone in the VW community do this yet so I hope you guys enjoyed the info! I'm constantly learning more about CNG but any questions or comments are more then welcome.

[silentbob]

Very cool. Do you live in Utah? I've heard CNG vehicles are relatively popular there now, due to some quirk that keeps gas prices low. I guess I'm somewhat surprised that only Honda currently sells a CNG-powered vehicle, iirc.

BTW, your electrical tool is made by Klein, not Kline. I have some of their stuff, very robust.

[Shaftster1999AEB]

This is awesome, keep us posted on this. I'm sure some people might not put this on there passats but I'm sure in the future they might put it on other vehicles they may own. I'm definitely interested and wondering how this would work with a turbo. Good Show BTW very clean dub

[captainfantastic]

Sir
CNG?
Sure?
Or do you mean LPG?
Very popular in the area i live.
BTW: Your tank is Huuuuuuge.There are tanks availiable with a capacity of ~60ltrs which fit in the place where the spare wheel is located.

[deusexaethera]

How do you feel about putting the tanks in a roof-mounted aerodynamic box, so if they vent the gas drifts upward instead of asphyxiating the passengers?

[deusexaethera]

Sir
CNG?
Sure?
Or do you mean LPG?
Very popular in the area i live.
BTW: Your tank is Huuuuuuge.There are tanks availiable with a capacity of ~60ltrs which fit in the place where the spare wheel is located.

You mean 6,0L, right? 60L would be enormous.

Also, keep in mind this is an American car, meaning that it might see trips that take more than a single fill to complete. It needs to have a reasonable range.

[Shaftster1999AEB]

You mean 6,0L, right? 60L would be enormous.

Also, keep in mind this is an American car, meaning that it might see trips that take more than a single fill to complete. It needs to have a reasonable range.

He did state you could switch between fuel types.

Here is the level indicator and on/off switch. You can run CNG or gasoline whenever you want and swap back and forth on the fly.

[yugo]

Long story short, one of the businesses I work at started another company and one of the things we are doing is importing compressed natural gas(CNG) conversions for automobiles of almost any type. As part of training I got a couple of kits for the v-dubs for next to nothing so I thought I would share what I've learned from the passat on here! Introducing the beasty in question:


First, I unfortunately didn't have my camera for the first day when all the big work took place(installing the tank, running the high pressure line). I do have a few of cleaning up the wiring and heater lines.

Here is the rundown: you have a tank and from it you run stainless steel tubing to a two stage regulator, pictured below:

This regulator reduces the pressure from 3000 PSI to about 5 to 20 PSI. Once the pressure of the natural gas has been reduced it runs to the intake tube right before the throttle body ideally. There is an electronic valve in this tube that opens and closes according to what the oxygen sensor is saying the mixture is.

Here is the mess before I got it all cleaned up:

You can see the black heater hoses going through the steel in front of the heater core which is where they tee in. These are needed to keep the regulator from freezing up - any time you quickly reduce the pressure of something(compressed natural gas in this case) it gets VERY cold. The regulator has a loop around the heater core too keep this from happening. I have noticed zero loss in heater performance from this.

Here is a good look down in the engine bay of the regulator as I am cutting slack out of wiring and re-soldering everything. Note the yellow kline linesman dikes. These things are the so high quality its worth mentioning - I did all of the finesse wire stripping and cutting with those huge things. Not a broken strand once. =)


This is the tank in the trunk. The only real drawback is that your lose some space but there is still more then enough room The device on the right side with the green cap is the fill nozzle. The tank is a carbon composite wrapped around an inner aluminum cylinder, very lightweight and very safe. This was the main fear I had about this conversion but as soon as I did research I found how safe they really are. You can drop them from 50 feet, shoot them with a gun, burn them in a fire and all they do is vent. With a flash point of over 1000 degrees, its much safer then gasoline.

This is still a work in progress as I have yet to install the venting cover on the cylinder valve that will go out the floor but I thought I'd post some pictures as is for now.

Here is the level indicator and on/off switch. You can run CNG or gasoline whenever you want and swap back and forth on the fly.


Here it is all done up. The open face filter is a very unfortunate must in this case because it was the only way to afford the room I needed to install the regulator and all that goes with it. I'll be looking for some way to create a heat shield next...


Well, thats about it. The total retail cost for something like this is around $2500.00 depending on what kind of tank you use. There is a power loss on this type of system of about 5%. If you use a more advanced sequential system there is no power loss but its more expensive and requires you to drill holes in the manifold for CNG injectors...didn't wanna do that.

CNG has 1 carbon to gasoline's 8 carbons! The ramifications of this alone is a huge advantage to gasoline as it wont crud up the engine with carbon deposits and the carbon output from the exhaust is MUCH cleaner. The fact that it is 70 to 80 cents a gallons where I live is also obviously a boon(and that there is a CNG fill station 10 minutes from my house).

Well, that's it. I haven't seem anyone in the VW community do this yet so I hope you guys enjoyed the info! I'm constantly learning more about CNG but any questions or comments are more then welcome.

Hi there, first of all congratulations for using a much ecological fuel
My passat 1.8T runs on LPG(liquid petroleum gas),it´s almost the same, but your kit uses natural gas and mine uses a mix of propane and butane gases.. i have sequential injection kit from Landirenzo..no losses of power, cheaper, safer and very important, ecological.. i`m waiting for a nice sunny day to update you guys with some photos

[sipes216]

parts list, now!

seriousily, i want a list of all parts you used, and info of how you placed them.

you really need to make a writeup, or come down here to texas and help install this on my car.

[yugo]

parts list, now!

seriousily, i want a list of all parts you used, and info of how you placed them.

you really need to make a writeup, or come down here to texas and help install this on my car.

Send me your email and i will send you a pdf instruction manual with all parts and how to install them

[deusexaethera]

He did state you could switch between fuel types.

Touche. I missed that part.

[02GLXWag6stk]

Finally a BiFuel vehicle.

The biggest concern not to long ago was how to reduce oil usage especially as it relates to everyday consumer transportation unless you live in NYC; DC; SFO.

The CNG solution with only Honda offering it was limited by the clear lack of infrastructure cost and development throughout most of the US: except for Calif where one can literally drive from San Diego to San Francisco with CNG fueling stations spaced withIN 200 miles. Also the Salt Lake City region has gained a lot of notoriety in being HEAVY CNG users with some even installing units in their own garages.

With "BiFuel" using CNG (natural gas is plentiful and IN the US with HUGE finds like the Marcellus Shale formation in western PA; Barnett Shale in Dallas- FW area etc) this appears to me to be the possible "Wave of the Future" as it relates to the potential to meaningful impact our dependence on foreign oil despite current $41/oil barrel. Think that this will be an area of growing Obama influence.

Perhaps with this solution which needs to be fully costed out, we may have a solution that minimizes potential re-escalating energy costs and allows one to still live a modified lifestyle of 18 mos ago?

Would like more info to be PM'ed

[deusexaethera]

Personally I don't care if my car burns fossilized fairy dust and gets 200mpg on it, I still want it to have a hybrid system. No engine, no matter how efficient and nonpolluting, needs to idle at stoplights, and no braking system should rely on wasting energy as heat more than it absolutely has to. I paid for that energy, I want to get my money's worth out of it.

[sipes216]

Personally I don't care if my car burns fossilized fairy dust and gets 200mpg on it, I still want it to have a hybrid system. No engine, no matter how efficient and nonpolluting, needs to idle at stoplights, and no braking system should rely on wasting energy as heat more than it absolutely has to. I paid for that energy, I want to get my money's worth out of it.

deus, i agree with what you say to a certain point, well... quite a lot of them in this case.

yes, i did pay for that energy, however paying for the regenative methods of energy production will far surpass any costs you can hope to save. with hybrids, yea, i suppose it's really worth it as they essentially use a planetary gearset for the transmission, hence how they can have two engines plugged to the same powertrain.

also, with that increased mechanical work comes a lot more moving parts, a lot more costly parts, and a lot more maintenance require to avoid buying new aforementioned costly parts.

[deusexaethera]

The hybrid you buy now makes the hybrid you buy in ten years that much cheaper and more reliable. As for having to buy new parts, some manufacturers use halfway-durable parts to begin with.

Also, the Prius uses a planetary gearbox to connect the motor and the engine, but the transmission is a push-belt CVT just like what Nissan uses on the Altima. Not that this makes a lot of difference for the sake of argument, just clearing that up.

[sipes216]

The hybrid you buy now makes the hybrid you buy in ten years that much cheaper and more reliable. As for having to buy new parts, some manufacturers use halfway-durable parts to begin with.

Also, the Prius uses a planetary gearbox to connect the motor and the engine, but the transmission is a push-belt CVT just like what Nissan uses on the Altima. Not that this makes a lot of difference for the sake of argument, just clearing that up.

i wouldn't go so far as to say that it makes them cheaper... i would simply imply that the buying of such shows market interest and thus manufacturers continue their research to make better models.
that's exactly why the electric car (chevy volt) has never been long-term released.

and yep, the prius uses it too, but the case i was referring to (the one i know) is the ford escape hybrid. they have a normal trans connected to the planetary. it's really quite an ingenious setup. imagine if they had instituted this back in the 70's. we would have cars nowdays powered with two inline 6's longitudinally. GOD, that would be badass. now, in no way would a manual be possible there, but it would sure be cool.

and also, i'm not that big a fan of the CVT. yea, sure. i guess it has a contant torque band, yada yada yada, but in the long run it's just a V-belt that transfers your power to the ground... without a firm gearmesh, i don't trust them. too easy to grenade.


also, regarding the real topic of this thread
i do have to know... did you re-wire the injectors with a cutoff switch (the wire bundle in the blue split looms) or what? how did you make the switchover?

[l5gcw0b]

fwiw, 60l is only 15.85gal

And LPG/propane falls to the ground and collects for which reason it is often banned in garages.
CNG is OK afaik

[deusexaethera]

Depends what temperature it is. I believe propane is lighter than air, though when it first escapes it probably cools enough to sink to the ground.

[ashman78]

Awesome stuff! I've been hoping someone would do this in the US eventually. This country has been in the dark on CNG and LPG for way too long.

My understanding is that the EPA still requires non-fleet, non-commerial, on-road vehicles to be tested at the owner's expense (in most areas). Is that still an issue, or do you just register it for off-road use only?

[99blackmagic]

this is very interesting. i want to read up on this more, good places to start?

What's the consumption rate? MPG

[formoeshin]

As far as the CNG VS LPG issue, the reason I went with CNG is because it is more readily available in my area and LPG does indeed pool up in low spots as the gas leaks out where the CNG floats up and dissipates. Either system has checks and safety features to make this a small concern. The only drawback to CNG is that as a compressed gas its less efficient to store then liquified propane gas. My tank is equivalent to about 5 gallons of gasoline. Its more then enough for the around town driving we do, we fill up about twice a week or so.

Sipes - Yes, with the kit I used there is a wire harness that works on all Bosch type injectors with the wire retainer clip. Plugs right on, simple as you please. There are other harnesses available for other makes as well but in the end if you cannot find one its easy enough to just solder in the wire from the harness to the colored wire on the injector. The harness goes to a small control box which turns them off when CNG is switched on and leaves the running as normal when its off. The injector control box is wired to a main control box that attaches to all the other components of the CNG system.(throttle position sensor, O2 signal, ignition pulse signal, shut off switch/level indicator). You push the button, it sends a signal that simultaneously engages a solenoid on the CNG regulator to let the CNG flow while the gasoline injectors get cut off. You can program the RPM at which CNG turns on - for example I have mine turn on when the engine is winding down from 2K RPM. If you had it swap while idling it may die as for a split second the engine is waiting for the CNG to travel from the intake to the cylinders.

deusexaethera - A rooftop pod was my first idea for the install and I would have done it if I had more funds and time. I think that overall though with a roof basket I'll gain more storage rather then having tanks up there. Asphyxiation is something to take seriously even though its so remote with a smart install that its pretty much definitely not going to happen. The fitting for the tank are sealed and vented so any leaks are routed out of the vehicle - its not yet pictured on mine, I'll post it up when I get it done. Either way if you have children small enough that they cannot recognize a funny smell and get out of the car you shouldn't leave them unattended - this is all just for the impossible though. You have just as good a chance or better of starting your car on fire from static discharge while filling up with gasoline as you do of having something dangerous with a CNG kit happen. Once the compression fittings are all installed and leak tested they simply just do not fail or leak unless the installer made massive mistakes.

99blackmagic - its a bit less efficient. The MFD mpg is way off when on CNG as it requires me to give the gas more pressure to open up the TB and create suction for the venturi injector. It goes down to 13-14 or so but I'm measuring closer to about 17. I get 19-21 on gasoline. I do very little highway driving.

This installation really shines on a truck where you can take the spare out of the bottom and re-route the exhaust. Mounting two tanks under the bed gives you about 10 gallons GGE(gasoline gallon equivalent). They can go in the bed too if you want to sacrifice the hauling capacity.

Diesels - here's where it gets interesting. You run CNG along with diesel as a blend and what you gain is almost double the mileage - and lots of extra power. I've got a bug biting me now to sell my GTI and get a TDI passat and try it.

MIL lights when running on CNG kits of the throttle body injection are a given. It runs lean and causes a corresponding code(thank you vag-com). I'm still learning about dry fuel but I know that you can run it as lean as it will run without danger of damage but I don't know why. The advantage of s sequential CNG system with its own CNG injectors for each cylinder is that you may be able to keep the MIL off when operating on alternative fuel, we are just now importing and testing these sequential systems. Its more difficult because they cost a lot more and directly impact the car that they are installed on, as you have to drill holes in the intake manifold.

I don't have much online resources to post beyond what google will retrieve. I read the SAE installation and maintenance book on CNG vehicles and it a lots of info but like I said I am still learning all the intricacies of it myself. The only research I did was to make sure that it won't damage my engine and that it was actually safe to use. I'll definitely post any resources I find here. My company has a very simple website but its not all that high in information - its basic info and ordering. Plus its a sales website and I don't know what the rules are about posting that sort of thing in this forum.

EDIT: sorry for the wall of text, I'll try to respond more often. lol.

[StattlichPassat]

Ok, that's pretty frickin' sweet- a huge 'way to go' and congrats on pulling this off.

I work for one of the largest companies that can extract, pipeline and compress natural gas into this form in the country, so I can really appreciate this.

[mfitz]

.

Diesels - here's where it gets interesting. You run CNG along with diesel as a blend and what you gain is almost double the mileage - and lots of extra power. I've got a bug biting me now to sell my GTI and get a TDI passat and try it.

Now you have my interest up. Hmmmm.

[ashman78]

Now you have my interest up. Hmmmm.

The guys on the tdi forums say the propane thing is a wash, so I can't imaging CNG would magically work better or else it would cost a fortune and every OTR trucking company would probably be doing it right now.

However, my uncle with a heavy-duty truck swears that propane adds power and economy to his big inline six.

[jonasg]

thats awesome, i wont be looking into doing this but its so cool that you can swittch between gas and gasoline, props.

[yugo]

As far as the CNG VS LPG issue, the reason I went with CNG is because it is more readily available in my area and LPG does indeed pool up in low spots as the gas leaks out where the CNG floats up and dissipates. Either system has checks and safety features to make this a small concern. The only drawback to CNG is that as a compressed gas its less efficient to store then liquified propane gas. My tank is equivalent to about 5 gallons of gasoline. Its more then enough for the around town driving we do, we fill up about twice a week or so.

Sipes - Yes, with the kit I used there is a wire harness that works on all Bosch type injectors with the wire retainer clip. Plugs right on, simple as you please. There are other harnesses available for other makes as well but in the end if you cannot find one its easy enough to just solder in the wire from the harness to the colored wire on the injector. The harness goes to a small control box which turns them off when CNG is switched on and leaves the running as normal when its off. The injector control box is wired to a main control box that attaches to all the other components of the CNG system.(throttle position sensor, O2 signal, ignition pulse signal, shut off switch/level indicator). You push the button, it sends a signal that simultaneously engages a solenoid on the CNG regulator to let the CNG flow while the gasoline injectors get cut off. You can program the RPM at which CNG turns on - for example I have mine turn on when the engine is winding down from 2K RPM. If you had it swap while idling it may die as for a split second the engine is waiting for the CNG to travel from the intake to the cylinders.

deusexaethera - A rooftop pod was my first idea for the install and I would have done it if I had more funds and time. I think that overall though with a roof basket I'll gain more storage rather then having tanks up there. Asphyxiation is something to take seriously even though its so remote with a smart install that its pretty much definitely not going to happen. The fitting for the tank are sealed and vented so any leaks are routed out of the vehicle - its not yet pictured on mine, I'll post it up when I get it done. Either way if you have children small enough that they cannot recognize a funny smell and get out of the car you shouldn't leave them unattended - this is all just for the impossible though. You have just as good a chance or better of starting your car on fire from static discharge while filling up with gasoline as you do of having something dangerous with a CNG kit happen. Once the compression fittings are all installed and leak tested they simply just do not fail or leak unless the installer made massive mistakes.

99blackmagic - its a bit less efficient. The MFD mpg is way off when on CNG as it requires me to give the gas more pressure to open up the TB and create suction for the venturi injector. It goes down to 13-14 or so but I'm measuring closer to about 17. I get 19-21 on gasoline. I do very little highway driving.

This installation really shines on a truck where you can take the spare out of the bottom and re-route the exhaust. Mounting two tanks under the bed gives you about 10 gallons GGE(gasoline gallon equivalent). They can go in the bed too if you want to sacrifice the hauling capacity.

Diesels - here's where it gets interesting. You run CNG along with diesel as a blend and what you gain is almost double the mileage - and lots of extra power. I've got a bug biting me now to sell my GTI and get a TDI passat and try it.

MIL lights when running on CNG kits of the throttle body injection are a given. It runs lean and causes a corresponding code(thank you vag-com). I'm still learning about dry fuel but I know that you can run it as lean as it will run without danger of damage but I don't know why. The advantage of s sequential CNG system with its own CNG injectors for each cylinder is that you may be able to keep the MIL off when operating on alternative fuel, we are just now importing and testing these sequential systems. Its more difficult because they cost a lot more and directly impact the car that they are installed on, as you have to drill holes in the intake manifold.

I don't have much online resources to post beyond what google will retrieve. I read the SAE installation and maintenance book on CNG vehicles and it a lots of info but like I said I am still learning all the intricacies of it myself. The only research I did was to make sure that it won't damage my engine and that it was actually safe to use. I'll definitely post any resources I find here. My company has a very simple website but its not all that high in information - its basic info and ordering. Plus its a sales website and I don't know what the rules are about posting that sort of thing in this forum.

EDIT: sorry for the wall of text, I'll try to respond more often. lol.

Nice explanation let me know if you need more information, i have tuturials and instruction manuals for sequential kits,from 3 to 8 cylinder engines.. i´m glad to know that you guys in the states are treating the lpg/cnc issue very serious, i think that these are the main candidates to be the link to the future, electricity an hydrogen will be the future.. by now we have this cheap and clean energy..

And yes, lpg/cng kits are available to diesels, they can increase power up to 30%

But it is a very expensive mod, and the car will still runing with the 2 fuels at the same time, wich makes a lot more time to return the investment made..

Let me say you guys, these kit cost me 1500 €uros, something like 1900 US dollars, but after ten months the kit was paid the difference in prices are huge

[yugo]

CNG.. sorry.. here in portugal we call it GNC..

[formoeshin]

Nice to know thanks. Yeah all the big CNG kit manufacturers are in Italy or Argentina so I assume its popular there but I didn't know about in between Italy and the coast, France, Spain and Portugal. Its patchy in the U.S.A. at best but I really feel that its the bridge to whats next in fuel as well.

The guys on the tdi forums say the propane thing is a wash, so I can't imaging CNG would magically work better or else it would cost a fortune and every OTR trucking company would probably be doing it right now.

However, my uncle with a heavy-duty truck swears that propane adds power and economy to his big inline six.

Nobody in the trucking industry has wanted to commit to it until recently. The truth is that most of them just don't have the facts. There could be some strange EPA constraint on using bi-fuel on commercial vehicles as well, I'm not sure.

Theres not doubt about it, I've seen first hand in a truck that it works, and it pins you to the back of the seat. Huge gains - just need to use a pyrometer to make sure things stay under 900 degrees F in the engine. The question is how its application in a TDI would work. I'm going to assume at this point that people either haven't done it or haven't done it right. Would end up costing about $1600 but it would without a doubt increase power - not sure about economy in the TDI's case but I'd guess that it would. You could get some other pretty fun stuff with that same amount of cash though.

If we do well enough I'll tell the owner to sponsor a TDI passat that I can take down to the drag strip for advertising. I swear to God its work related to go to the race track!

[sipes216]

i've seen propane used as a "nos" equivalent with the big trucks.
fun stuff to really see.

all in all, i still really want a price kit.
if i can make a checklist of the parts for this, and source out the various parts to reduce cost, i would highly be interested in this.

so CNG is basically propane, right?
or am i completely wrong?

either way, what i'm getting at is strapping in a couple or so small "blue rhino" cans in the trunk of my sedan wouldn't be too hard at all, and more than worth the trouble!

god damnit, i have too many car projects at one time...
STOP BREAKING MY WALLET PW!

seriously though, where'd you get the kit?

[formoeshin]

They are quite a bit different in nature but very similar in application.

CNG is stored at much higher pressure the LPG - Being that propane is liquefied in its stored form and stores more efficiently in that form then compressed gas. As far as adding it to a vehicle for a secondary fuel source though, its the same basic idea.

Adding the tanks is where things start to get dicey. You shouldn't use just any tank. Here in the states we have a DOT certification for tanks and internationally there is an ISO cert. They are both tested similarly for impact and general resilience in relation to transportation uses. The difference? Someone had about a half million dollars to have the DOT put their stamp on the tank. These same companies also sell expensive CNG conversion kits that they can pay for DOT certifications on and with those they try to scare everyone else out of the market.

Here is the website of company I work for. We are currently using this system from Argentina

I remembered the other thing about propane - I think in a lot of places having over something like 1 gallon of propane indoors is against safety codes.

Here is the website for the place I work at the sells the kit since people are asking. Its still in a preliminary stage but it does what it needs to.
http://ewsews.com/cnghome.html